Chloroform and Happiness
by Suzette's Blue
Summary: MattxMello one sided NearxMatt. Gift fic for CANDY-is-EPIC. What I think life at Wammy's was like for our three favourite boys. Non-canon timeline.
1. Chapter One: Matt

**A/N:** Okay, new fic. This one is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Xigbar from Kingdom Hearts.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #2) a little shiny white mp3 player with hellogoodbye on it (among other things) called Yokobue, #6) a big staircase, and one of my personal favourites #17) a tv with a broom handle imbedded in the screen.

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Mario Kart Love Song by Sam Hart and Touchdown Turnaround (Don't Give Up On Me) by Hellogoodbye. And the title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go an look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter One: "Matt"

Mail Jeevas sat in the back of the small, unremarkable car that had taken him from the orphanage he had lived in since his mum had died; six months ago to the day. His vision was fixed on the small screens of his Nintendo DS, two small earphones drowning out any outside noise.

The eight year old stifled a giggle as he made Lego Batman walk up yet another ladder so that he could watch his butt wiggle in that ridiculous way of his and reached down to change the song on his small white MP3 player who he fondly called "Yokobue".

_~"You be my princess and I'll be your toad"~_ Mail winced and quickly pressed the 'next' button on Yokobue. There was no way he could listen to _that_ particular song, no matter how many times he had allowed it to lull him to sleep in the past.

_~"Every night I see you standing on the corner"~_ Mail sighed, this was better. He did not need _that_ song floating around his head as it was prone to do; while he was trying to make a new start away from the people who still laughed at him for the time he had burst into tears after listening to _that_ song for the first time since _she_ died.

Turning back to his game, he was just about to make Lego Batman climb the ladder for the tenth time in a row when the car slid to a halt outside massive iron gates.

Pushing up his goggles to get a better view, Mail absently saved his game and turned off the DS, shoving it unceremoniously into the small backpack which held everything he'd wanted from the orphanage and wound down his window to peek his head out.

As the car began to move again, through the now opened gates, _'When did that happen?'_ Mail wondered distantly, more focused on the view now available to him, which made him gape.

There, in the middle of what seemed to Mail like a sea of green grass with a ring of trees catching his eye on the edges of the sprawling lawns, was what the small boy could only describe as a huge castle. Although, mansion might be more appropriate.

The car pulled slowly to a halt outside the gigantic front doors and Mail fumbled for the door handle before stumbling out and grabbing his shabby bag, stuffing his beloved Yokobue into a side pocket of the bag.

For what seemed to Mail like an eternity (although in reality, was only a few minutes whilst the driver parked the car properly, got out and rang the doorbell which echoed impressively through the currently deserted grounds, and waited for someone to come answer the door), all he could to was stand and stare around him at _everything_.

"Matt is it?" a voice broke into Mail's blatant gawking and the eight year old spun around quickly to see an old man standing by the open front doors, the car and its driver were nowhere in sight and Mail realised the old man must have been talking to him.

"Uhh, my name's Mail." he corrected the man.

The old man smiled sadly, "Not any more, it isn't" he replied quietly, "From this day forth you shall be known only as Matt. You'll get used to it soon enough, this way now, I'll show you to your new room... and your new room-mate."

The old man steered Mail, no, Matt now, into the mansion, firmly closing the door behind them and leading him up the stairs.

"You may call me Roger."

--

"Mello, why is there a broom handle protruding from your television screen?" a voice asked from the doorway of the twin room Mello shared with no one…yet.

"Some bitch in Japan insulted L on the news earlier" the blond boy muttered rebelliously.

"And so you took your frustrations out on the television?" Roger's voice didn't _sound_ accusing.

"Better then Linda's face again" the blond quipped under his breath.

"Anyway, that's not why I stopped by this evening, Mello, this is Matt, he shall be your new room-mate. I trust you will make him feel at home."

Mello froze, then turned slowly to look at the new kid.

He was short and scrawny with red hair and green eyes and golden tinted goggles pulled down around his neck and was half hiding behind Roger as if frightened of Mello.

"I'm Mello" the blond broke the silence, sticking out a hand for the kid to shake.

"Ma-Matt" the red haired boy said, shooting a fearful glance at Roger before extending a shaking hand to shake Mello's.

"Well come in and excuse the mess, but you'll just have to get used to it" the blond grinned, turning his back on Roger, "is that all you brought? Never mind, I'm sure Roger can find some more stuff for you. This'll be your bed and that one's mine. Oh, and never _ever_ touch my chocolate okay? Seriously, you do _not_ want to find out what happens when someone touches my chocolate."

Matt threw a glance over his shoulder to see a gently smiling Roger close the door softly to let the two boys get acquainted without interruption, plenty of time to make sure Matt understood everything and show him around in the morning.

--

As Roger had predicted, Matt soon got used to his new name. Everyone here never used their real names, not even Roger. Mello had explained this after hearing Matt stumbling over his new name.

"No one here knows your old name," Mello had explained, "not even Roger. Its for our own good see, if no one knows who we really are, no one can know anything about who we were before. Its a new start, a chance to make something of ourselves when before there would be nothing."

"So...who does that make me now?" Matt had asked.

"It makes you Matt, a little boy deemed intelligent enough to be allowed the honour of trying for the position of the successor of L."

"Who's L?" Matt asked innocently.

"L is the reason we're all here." Mello explained, reminding himself forcefully that Matt was new and not everyone in the world had heard of the brilliant detective. Sure most of those people lived under rocks, but there were still a few out there. "He is the most well renown detective since Sherlock Holmes, but better because he's not a figment of Sir Arthur Doyle's imagination"

"He's also not an arse hole." a small red haired girl called Annie piped in.

"That too" Mello said with a smirk.

"So we're all going to be detectives?" Matt asked, his small face confused.

Mello shook his head, "Not necessarily" the blond said, "Some will, of course, but others will choose different fields, after all, we have the best learning facilities available, and a few that aren't, and they let us study whatever extra stuff we want just so long as we still do well on the standard tests we get every Monday."

"So…I don't have to become a detective?" Matt asked, still looking confused.

"Well…that depends on what ranking you get, if you're in the top five you're not allowed to make any outside commitments until the successor is chosen properly"

"Oh." Matt said, looking the tiniest bit less confused. Then, "What ranking are you?"

"First." Mello replied, smirking smugly.

"Oh..." Matt said again.

--

Matt quickly settled into life at Wammy's.

He had quickly become fast friends with Mello despite the blonde's seemingly bipolar behaviour, a feat that, surprising to Matt, seemed to be a difficult one to the rest of the population at Wammy's. Mello said it was in awe of his ranking, but Matt thought that it may have had something to do with the girl Linda who had come back from the hospital the day after Matt had arrived at Wammy's, her face covered in bruises, and who seemed terrified of Mello, often going well out of her way to avoid the blond boy. Many others had begun to follow her example, albeit to a lesser degree.

The big shock however, came not even a week after his arrival at the orphanage. It was Monday evening, dinner had just finished and Mello had half dragged Matt out into the hallway by the gigantic staircase just inside the front doors where the rankings list had been posted sometime while everyone had been at dinner.

Mello quickly moved to the top of the list to make sure he was still number one, and, after checking his place, turned back to help Matt start to look for his name before the crowds arrived, but as he was turning away, something caught his eye.

Blinking and rubbing at his eyes, he peered back at the place for number two and saw, much to his evident astonishment, Matt's name staring back at him proudly.

"Matt" he croaked hoarsely, then "Matt" he said, louder this time, "I found you."

"Huh?" Matt hurried to where Mello was standing and followed the direction his friend's shaking finger was pointed to see his name beside the number 2. "I'm…second?"

"It would appear so." Roger's voice spoke from behind them, "It would seem that congratulations are in order, welcome, Matt, to Wammy's House. We shall expect great things of you"

Matt gulped and stared from the list to Mello to Roger and back to the list again.

Maybe Wammy's _wouldn't_ be such a breeze after all.

--

**A/N:** Okay, first chapter down and Xigbar saved!!

Next chapter is for Itachi from Naruto.

You will find out the significance of the first song (Mario Kart Love Song by Sam Hart) in the next chapter and there will be more fluff, along with Near!

Oh and for anyone who knows me: Wow, something by Suzie that's not completely dark and angsty! Are you proud of me? Or just plain freaked out?

Reviews = love. love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter (except for the last one which is Matt and Mello) and will only save character I believe should be saved. if you request someone who is a) already granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	2. Chapter Two: Number One

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Itachi from Naruto.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #1) someone eating cereal in the middle of the day and #3) an old fashioned ink well and pen.

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Here (In Your Arms) by Hellogoodbye, Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus, Mario Cart Love Song by Sam Hart. And the title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Two: Number One

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatt change the song already." Mello groaned, throwing a pillow at his friend, "We've listened to that song for three hours straight already."

_~"I like. Where you sleep. When you sleep. Next to me. I like. Where you sleep... here."~ _Matt sang along, seeming not to hear the blond as he easily ducked the pillow thrown at him. _~"Our lips. Can touch. And our cheeks. Can brush. Our lips. Can touch... here. Well you are the one the one that~ _ HEY!!"

Mello smirked having successfully changed the song.

Matt sniffed and then… _~"Her name is Noel, I have a dream about her, she rings my bell"~_

Mello groaned again and began going through the music on Yokobue. "Do you have _anything_ good on this thing?" he asked.

"Hey! I take offence to that!" Matt protested, pausing in his singing along, "Everything on Yokobue is made of pure awesome!"

"Right" Mello said, "Because Natalie Cole is really made of awesome."

"Hey she's not _that_ bad." Matt said.

Mello snorted but continued looking through Yokobue for anything that sounded remotely decent and then paused. This looked…interesting.

_~"You be my princess and I'll be your toad~"_

Matt sat up straight.

"Turn it off" he said, his voice unusually rough

"Wha?"

"TURN IT OFF MELLO!!"

Matt stormed quickly over to where Mello was sitting and ripped the speakers from the offending machine before turning back and collapsing onto his bed, pulling the pillow Mello had thrown at him over his face.

Mello stared at him in shock, Matt _never_ yelled... There must be something about that song…

Then Matt mumbled something too low for Mello to hear.

"Sorry, didn't catch that" he said, unsure of how he should be behaving around his friend

"I said I'm sorry about that" Matt said, shifting the pillow so that he could be heard, "It's just…I can't listen to…_that song_ anymore"

"Anymore?" Mello wondered aloud, "What do you mean by that?"

Matt sighed, "It was our song, Mum's and mine." he said quietly.

"Shit, I'm sorry-"

Matt cut him off with a wave of his hand, "Its okay" he assured the blond, "Its not like you knew or anything, and I should probably be talking about it so that I can get over it or whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing…"

Mello was silent for a moment before getting up and making his way over to where his friend lay on his back, staring at the ceiling and bending down to give him a brief, awkward hug.

When he pulled back Matt sat up and looked at him, "What was that for?" he asked.

Mello shrugged, "You looked like you needed one." he said offhandedly, "...But don't tell anyone about this okay?"

Matt grinned, "Sure, we wouldn't want to ruin nasty Mello's reputation now would we?"

Mello mock glared at the red head. Matt giggled back and threw the pillow at him.

--

Months passed and Life at Wammy's stayed the same. Same old classes, same old rankings, same old terrified glances at Mello which everyone pretended not to see. Until one day, a new face appeared in the classrooms and the dining room.

This new face, called Near by Roger and the teachers, was a quiet sort who could usually be found outside of class and meal times sitting in a corner of the rec-room completing an almost entirely white puzzle. He never really talked to anyone.

This "Near's" presence made no big difference at Wammy's until the Monday after his arrival at Wammy's House.

It was just after dinner, Matt and Mello had rushed out as soon as they were dismissed to check up on their places as usual, Matt also making a note to check the new kid's ranking out of curiosity.

Upon reaching the rankings list and looking at their usual spots, they found another name in each of their respective places. At first, Matt thought for one terrible moment that it was he who had surpassed Mello in the rankings upon seeing his blond friend's name in second place and mentally prepared himself to beg for his life, when he noticed that his name was in third place. '_But then who…?'_

"Did you see what ranking I got?" a quiet, lilting voice asked innocently from behind them.

Matt and Mello turned around.

"Near-?" Matt asked just as Mello hissed out;

"You."

The small pale boy blinked and took a step back, "M-me?" he asked hesitantly.

"You stole my place."

Matt gasped in shock and turned back to the rankings list, sure enough, there, in Mello's place beside the small number one, was Near's name for everyone to see.

A desperate yelping noise behind him made him whirl around again to see Mello straddling Near after pouncing on him and beginning to pummel in his head.

"Mells- No!" he shouted, loud enough to bring Roger and several of the L wannabes running.

"MELLO WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" Roger bellowed once he arrived at the scene.

Mello said nothing, just continued to pound the pale boy. Bruises had already begun to form on his delicate skin.

Roger managed to pry the struggling blonde off his prey as Linda and Annie helped Near up and got him to the infirmary.

"I never want to see you doing anything like that ever again. Understand Mello?"

"Yeah, yeah." Mello replied, obviously not listening properly.

Roger frowned, "I'm afraid you've gone too far this time Mello, I'm going to have to punish you" Mello's eyes widened, it appeared he was paying attention now, "You will write Near a fifty page letter of apology"

"Fifty pages?" Mello gasped.

Roger smirked, "Yes Mello, fifty pages, but that is not all"

"You mean there's more?"

"Indeed, now stop interrupting or you can write me another fifty page apology for interrupting and talking back."

Mello wisely closed his mouth. "Thank you, now, as I was saying, you shall have to write a fifty page apology to Near using these." Roger pulled an old fashioned ink well and pen as well as a bottle of black ink from seemingly nowhere and smiled gently, "Have fun Mello, and please don't try to make poor Matt do any of the writing or you shall re-write the letter, in one hundred pages, along with a fifty page apology for both myself and Matt."

Mello glared but took the writing utensils anyway, he knew better then to argue with Roger.

--

"I can draft the letter for you if you want" Matt offered once they were back in their shared room with the door safely closed and locked. He knew that Mello was hopeless with apologies, especially ones he didn't mean.

Mello sighed. "Nah I'll deal." he said, sitting down at his desk and pulling out some paper and pouring some ink into the ink well. Then, "…How do I begin this thing?"

Matt laughed and dragged a chair over to help his friend.

--

The next day came and Mello still hadn't finished the letter, even with Matt's help. He _had_ written about a hundred pages, all of which had to be thrown out due to Mello either writing something that would get him into more trouble or ink being splattered all over the page thus making it illegible, which Mello figured Roger must have expected whilst giving him the writing implements.

It was lunch time and Matt had gone to get them food from the kitchens while Mello worked on trying to complete the letter before Roger thought is necessary to extend the page length by another hundred or so.

The door opened and Matt walked in with two bowls of something that looked suspiciously like…breakfast cereal?

"Matt, what the hell?"

"Huh?" Matt walked over to the desk and put one of the bowls in front of his friend and handed him a spoon, "What are you talking about?"

"What's with the cereal? Its the middle of the day!!"

Matt shrugged, "Why not?" with that he picked up Mello's page and began to read, eating a spoonful of the cereal as he did so. "Hey Mells, you sure you don't want me to draft this for you?"

Mello sighed in defeat. "Fine" he found a pen (a normal one) for the red haired gamer and watched as he began to outline an apology that would satisfy Roger, grinning and eating his cereal as he did so.

--

**A/N:** And there we have chapter two. Which means Itachi is _saved!!_ *dances*

Next up will be Zexion from Kingdom Hearts, because he _would_ have been saved _this_ chapter if I hadn't totally mind blanked and thought he'd already been saved when Axel was.

In the next chapter there will be more cuteness and tangerines. Lots and lots of tangerines.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter (except for the last one which is Matt and Mello) and will only save character I believe should be saved. if you request someone who is a) already granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

And thus I would like to thank CANDY chan and The Consort of Sewer Rats for their love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	3. Chapter Three: Apologies and Tangerines

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Zexion from Kingdom Hearts.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #14) a baby grand piano, #24) Gladosxhal shipping, #25) Someone should be on fanfiction at some point of the story... and #47) Month of only eating tangerines

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, Colour My World (I'm afraid I don't know who its by as a friend just gave me the link to a newgrounds page and I got it from there:( ) and Jessica's Theme from The Man From Snowy River. And the title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Three: Apologies, Pianos and Tangerines

It was Sunday by the time Mello finally managed to make a legible copy of the letter of apology Matt had written for him to Near.

"Here." he growled, shoving the pages into the smaller boy's face, "An apology." he mumbled before fleeing back to his room and copious amounts of chocolate.

"What does it say?" Linda asked, rushing up to Near as soon as Mello had disappeared from sight.

Near slowly unfolded the pages and began to read, his grey eyes widening as he read further and further until he finished.

"Well?" Annie asked, "What did he say?"

Near's expression turned into a small smirk, "He said sorry." he said simply.

'_Thank you Matt'_

--

It was late at night. Almost everyone had gone to bed. And still Near sat in his corner, calmly placing pieces of his white puzzle in their respective places, waiting for the rec-room to empty of all save himself.

All that were left beside himself were two girls, Linda and Annie who were packing up their things.

"Near, we're going to bed now, you should probably get some sleep too, we have the tests tomorrow." Linda said from the doorway, Annie by her side.

"Goodnight Linda. Annie." Near said, ignoring the girls' concern.

Said girls hesitated a moment, then "Goodnight Near." they whispered as one before leaving.

Near continued to calmly put the pieces of his puzzle in their proper places until it was complete. Then, rising slowly, he made his way to the door. But, instead of walking out of it and going to bed, he instead firmly closed and locked it, turning out the light as he did so.

He then moved to a window and raised the blinds a little so that a beam of moonlight lit up a corner of the room.

Near moved to that corner and sat down at the baby grand piano that stood there; powerful yet at the same time kind of lonely. No one he had talked to knew how or when exactly the piano had become a part of the rec-room, and no one here now ever played it. And so it sat in its corner, slowly collecting dust…until now.

Slowly, Near lifted the lid of the piano and lightly ran his fingers over the ivory keys, and smiling a little to himself, he began to play.

To anyone walking by, -drawn perhaps, by the beautiful rendition of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata- who just so chanced to peer into the room, it may have appeared that it was a ghost sitting there, coaxing music out of the piano that had stood silent for so many years.

A ghost of what might have been, of who Near may have become had he not, wilfully or otherwise, shut out all his emotions.

The pale boy sat there, tears pouring down his face as the melody changed, becoming something softer, sweeter, but so sad it made children sleeping in their beds curl tighter into themselves to hide from the sadness and loneliness that they all knew so very well.

Near sat there and played until well after midnight. But, as his small, tried eyes began to droop, he regretfully came to the conclusion that he should go to bed so as not to let Mello reclaim his former glory in the position of being number one.

Deciding he could play one last melody, Near began the opening to Jessica's Theme, from The Man From Snowy River. He did not know why he chose that melody in particular, only that it felt right.

Lying still in his bed in the room he shared with Mello, Matt silently wiped tears of remembered joy mixed with those of present loss from his eyes.

--

Matt awoke the next day, a Monday, memories of last night's tears but a distant memory he put down to a dream. Groaning he sat up, hand automatically shading his eyes as he fumbled for his goggles to cover his sensitive eyes.

Glancing at the clock he cursed mentally at himself. _Why_ did he have such a screwed up internal clock? Probably all of those late nights spent either playing video games or hacking into random companies for the hell of it. But still, isn't 4:30 in the morning a _bit_ early for someone who had a late night hacking into a security company who claimed their systems were infallible.

He sighed and reached under his bed for one of the many boxes littering the room holding varying amounts of tangerines.

Grabbing one of the above mentioned fruits, he started to peel its skin off with a fork that was lying on his desk.

Pulling out a segment he absently took a bite as he pulled out his laptop, since there was no chance of Mello waking up for at least an hour, time to indulge in one of his secret hobbies … as in even more secret then his hacking addiction.

Opening Firefox, he opened his bookmarks list and chose a link. Maybe, just maybe, there would be an update on that fanfic…

--

It was half past six when Mello finally awoke…Matt was still reading.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Mello asked.

"Huh?" Matt looked up quickly and, seeing Mello awake attempted to quickly bookmark the page he was on so he could find it later before turning off his computer.

"Not so fast"

Before Matt had even closed down the browser, Mello was there, prying the computer out of the gamers' hands and looking at what he was doing.

His face twisted and contorted into many different expressions before settling on one that was a mixture of horror and …interest?

"Okay. What. The. Fuck?" he said.

"What?" Matt asked, "Its Glados x Hal. The two most evil AIs in history. What's not to love?"

Mello just looked at him strangely.

"We're going to be late if you sit there staring at me like that any longer" Matt pointed out, gesturing to the clock.

"HOLY SHIT!"

--

"I hate these stupid tests" Matt said grumpily as they sat down to lunch, "I'd just not do them and come last but Roger would get on my case since I've been in the top three ever since I started taking the damn things"

"Matt don't talk like that" Mello admonished

"Why not?" he asked, "You know its true. I have no want to become a world famous detective, waay too much work. I'd much rather work in a small computer store or something." He pulled out another tangerine and began peeling it with a fork.

"What's with you and tangerines all of a sudden?" Mello asked, "I swear you've eaten nothing but those things for _two __weeks_"

"Three weeks actually" Matt said, mopping up some juice dribbling down his chin with a napkin. He _would_ have just used his sleeve but Mello was already glaring at him, "I'm aiming for a month." he continued with a grin.

Mello groaned and face-palmed.

"Matt"

The two boys turned around to see Near standing there.

"Near"

"_You_"

"Mells, _please_ be nice, remember what Roger said?"

Mello growled but said nothing and Matt turned back with a smile for Near, "How can I help you?" he asked with his easy grin.

"I just wanted to thank you for your concern" the pale boy said.

Mello stiffened.

"No problem." Matt answered, subtly elbowing Mello in the ribs to remind him to behave in public. "Hey, you wanna join us?" he asked casually, gesturing to the free space on his other side. He figured if he was gonna be in for it later, he may as well go down hard.

Near looked hesitant but Matt took his silence as a yes.

"Great! Sit down, you want a tangerine?"

Near sat down hesitantly, shooting not quite nervous glances at Mello who was boring a hole into the back of Matt's head as the red haired gamer continued to chat amiably with Near.

"So, as I was saying to Mr PMS here before, I was wondering why the hell we have to do all of these stupid tests _every single week_." Matt said as he shoved a tangerine and fork into Near's pale hands, "I mean, sure I know that the tests are important and all but why do we have to have them _every single week_? And why _Mondays_? I mean, they were bad enough _before_ we came here and now…"

The gamer continued like this for another ten minutes, finishing his tangerine and pulling out another one which he began to peel before the subject of music somehow came up.

"Mells, why the hell do I like so many different types of music?" Matt asked, turning in his seat to look at his blond friend.

"Oh so _now_ you're talking to me" he grumbled resentfully.

"Oh come on Mells, Near's just new and he's had to hang around Linda and Annie ever since he got here. Give the poor guy a chance!"

"Are you forgetting what he _did_?"

"What? Proved you've gotten lax?"

Mello stood up abruptly. "Care to say that again Matt?" he asked through clenched teeth.

Matt seemed to realise what he had said, "Shit Mells come on! You know I didn't mean it."

"Oh really?"

"Mello"

"Me—"

"STAY OUT OF THIS YOU FRICKING BRAT!! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!" Mello roared at the pale boy, who they could have sworn had just gotten paler.

"Don't yell at him like that!" Matt snapped.

"WHY ARE YOU STILL DEFENDING THAT LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT?!"

"MAYBE BECAUSE HE'S MY FRIEND!" Matt yelled back, just as loud as the blond.

"SO WHAT AM I THEN?!"

"Why can't I just be friends with both of you? What's so hard about that?" Matt asked quietly right before he fled from the dining hall.

"That was well done" Near remarked softly.

"Can it brat" Mello snarled before racing after Matt.

--

**A/N:** And that was chapter three. Zexion is thus saved. ^_^

Next up will Hugh the Hand from Dragon Wing (first book of the Death Gate Cycle).

In the next chapter we have Mello actually apologising and Matt being stubborn.

Wow. Two chapters in one day. I'm on a roll no? Its actually because I _was_ going to post the last chapter yesterday but I didn't get the email from CANDY chan my beta until earlier on tonight, when I was already mostly done with this one.

Next chapter may take a while because CANDY chan is moving and thus will have no internet for a while. Hopefully we can make do with exchanging of flashsticks…if not you may have a bit of a wait but never fear!! Once CANDY chan's internet is up and running at her new place there should be lots of new chapters for all you lovely readers out there. If not I give you full permission to yell at me.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter (except for the last one which is Matt and Mello) and will only save characters I believe should be saved. if you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

And thus I would like to thank CANDY chan for her love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	4. Chapter Four: Please Matt

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Hugh the Hand from Dragon Wing, first book of the Death Gate Cycle.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness and as such i appologise for the majority of this chapter.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #13) a portrait of a beautiful woman and more tangerines.

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Shut Up by Simple Plan. And the title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Four:

"Matt" Mello banged on the locked door of the room he shared with the red haired gamer, "Matt open the door please?"

The was the sound of muffled movement inside the room and for one moment, Mello thought his friend was actually going to open the door.

Then: _~"There you go, you're always so right, it's all a big show, it's all about you, you think you know, what everyone needs, you always take time, to criticize me"~_

Mello winced at the harsh sound Matt's usually pleasant singing voice was making.

"Matt please" he tried again. The music went up quite a few decibels.

_~"_ _So shut up, shut up, shut up, don't wanna hear it, get out, get out, get out, get out of my way. Step up, step up, step up, you'll never stop me. Nothing you say today is gonna bring me down"~_

Mello groaned and slid down the door, burying his face in his hands.

Neither of them turned up to the afternoon tests or dinner.

Mello stayed in the hallway that night.

Simple Plan blasted from the room until the small hours of the morning.

No one said a word.

--

Tuesday came around and still Matt stayed locked in his room.

Roger decided that Mello could move into Near's room until Matt felt like coming out…or stayed in there long enough that he thought it worth breaking down the door to check on him.

Mello was openly distraught. He didn't even protest when he found out who his new roommate was going to be. He didn't pay any attention in class, and he was always glancing in the direction of the dorms as if he had some kind of psychic connection with the missing gamer.

--

Back in his room, Matt did nothing.

Well, its kinda hard to do _absolutely nothing_, but he just sat on his bed with a blanket thrown haphazardly around his shoulders and stared into space.

In his hand lay a small silver locket attached to a fine silver chain. The locket was partially opened, revealing the features of a beautiful woman.

But even the memory of his mother could not shake Matt from his depression.

--

"You go" Mello said suddenly that night after everyone had gone to bed.

"What?" Near asked sleepily.

"He won't listen to me but maybe he'll listen to you" the blond said by way of explanation.

"Who?"

"Matt of course" Mello snapped, "or have you not noticed that he hasn't come out once since lunch yesterday?"

Near did not answer him but got up and made his way to the door.

"Please know that I m doing this for Matt and not you" he said quietly as he walked out the door.

"I don't care who you do it for just get him out of there" Mello mumbled to the empty room.

--

Near knocked softly on the door, "Matt? Its Near. Please let me in"

There was no sound from within the room and for a moment, Near thought he was asleep.

Then a bed creaked and muffled shuffling footsteps could be heard. The door cracked open, "Near?" the chocked whisper was so full of tears and anguish that Near spontaneously moved forward to pull the elder boy into a hug.

"Why?" the gamer whispered once the pale boy had pulled away.

"You looked like you needed one" Near said simply.

Matt blinked back another wave of tears that threatened him for hearing Mello's words coming from Near's mouth

"No, why did you come?"

Near smiled up at him, "Mello's worried. He says he's sorry" was all he said.

Matt groaned suddenly and put his face into his hands "I'm such a dick" he moaned.

Near said nothing as Matt half ran half stumbled down the hall to the room Mello was in.

--

"Mells?" he asked hesitantly from the doorway.

"Matt?"

"I'm sorry I—"

"No, I'm the one who should be sorry"

Matt moved into the room and sat on the bed the blond occupied.

"Was Roger pissed off?" he asked with a grin.

"You should have seen his face this morning when he found out I'd slept in the hall"

"Yeah, sorry about that"

Mello shrugged, "I've done worse"

"Yeah like the time you locked me out for a month, separating me from my laptop, my DS _and_ Yokobue because I took one piece, _one piece_ I say, of chocolate"

"That was my chocolate and you know it" Mello growled, trying unsuccessfully to keep a smirk off his face.

"One piece Mells" returned Matt, openly grinning

"It was still mine" the blond protested, knowing he'd already lost this battle.

"I'm the one who stole it from the kitchens for you after your stash got confiscated because you punched Linda, again"

"Hey its not _my_ fault purple suits her" Mello mock-pouted.

"Never said it was Mells," Matt laughed, "never said it was."

The two continued reminiscing long into the night until grey began to peek over the horizon.

"God its late" Mello yawned.

"Your fault" Matt said automatically, "I may not remember how exactly right now but I'm sure the fault lies with you"

"Thanks"

"You're welcome"

"Now the question bears asking, do we stay up and then go to breakfast and classes? Or do we say screw them all and sleep instead"

"Wow, Mello's proposing skipping out on class?"

"Just this once, and only cos I'm so Goddamned tired"

Matt laughed at that, "lets sleep" he said.

And sleep they did, curled up on the bed Mello was using in Near's room like cats.

--

Lunchtime came and the two finally got up and headed down for lunch, Matt bringing along a few tangerines of course.

The two sat down in the dining hall as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened and Mello was even civil to Near when he came up to them asking how Matt was doing now.

"I'm fine, a little tired still" Mello snorted at that, "hey its not _my_ fault"

"Oh so its mine now?"

"I thought we'd already established this"

--

"Matt, I would like a word with you"

The class was silent. It was unheard of for Roger to interrupt a class and request a word with one of the students.

Matt got up without a word and followed Roger to his office.

"Matt, I want to talk about your behaviour concerning Mello a couple of—"

"Hold up a sec" Mello interrupted, slamming open the door and stumbling in, "he's not in trouble is he?"

"You were left to sleep in the hall in winter Mello, this is serious."

"So? Not like I haven't locked him out before"

"Mells" Matt hissed, eyes widening.

"Huh?"

"What was that Mello?" Roger's voice had turned icy.

"Uhh…I've locked Matt out before?"

Matt could have face-palmed.

Roger turned slowly to Matt, "why was I not informed of this?"

"Because there was nothing to inform you about?" Matt said, "its not like I've never been cold before Roger" he reasoned.

"That is no excuse and you know it."

Matt sighed, he knew what was coming…

"How many times have you been locked out exactly?"

Matt shrugged, "Uhh…I forget?"

Roger's glare intensified.

"Roger" a new voice broke in. The three in the office looked to the door to see Near standing there looking as worried as someone like him could be, "Annie and Linda appeared to have passed out in the middle of the classroom."

"What?!" Roger raced out of the office, all thoughts of Matt and Mello's punishment forgotten…for now.

"Quickly" Near said as soon as Roger had gone. He stepped inside the room and carefully closed the door and locked it while he explained what was going on, "I had Linda and Annie fake passing out to buy us some time but I'm not sure how long they can delay him"

Matt and Mello just stared at him blankly and Near resisted the urge to groan.

"We have to think up a story to get you both out of trouble, or fish up enough blackmail for him to 'forget' about it"

"Blackmail is it?" Matt asked smirking, "get me 20 minutes and I'll be able to tell you everything you want to know, and _don't_ want to know about dear old Roger" he said, already moving to the computer and tapping away at the keyboard confidently.

"Okay, I'll try for half an hour just to be safe, but Mello should stand watch in case something goes wrong and he comes back early."

"Wait why am I—?"

"Just do it Mells" Matt said, not looking up from the computer, "if I'm caught doing this we'll all be in much more serious trouble and Near can't do it because he has to get back to class before he's missed or Roger will suspect something"

"Fine fine" Mello said, "but you owe me"

"I'll get you a crate of Swedish chocolate" Matt said absently, "just go…and thanks Near"

--

**A/N:** And Hugh is saved!! Thank God, Xavier, or whoever's up there. Seriously. I finished that book the other day and I was all like "Oh noes!! This can't happen!!!" (I'm not gonna tell you what happened in case anyone out there was thinking of reading the books.)

Next up will be Deidara from Naruto

In the next chapter we have some juicy stories from Roger's past and some surprisingly good acting on behalf of Linda and Annie.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter (except for the last one which is Matt and Mello) and will only save character I believe should be saved. if you request someone who is a) already granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

And thus I would like to thank CANDY chan and Jenny (I would mention the Gaki but her's doesn't count in my opinion) for their love.

OH! And I would like to add another thank you to CANDY chan for granting me Joker Immunity™ once this is over ^_^

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	5. Chapter Five: He Did WHAT!

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Deidara from Naruto.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #) 8 a red ribbon, #35) a secret notebook no ones s'posed to look inside, and #)41 Applecoke

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including The Riddle by Five for Fighting and Paper Moon by Natalie Cole because Matt (meaning I) doesn't have the Nat King Cole version. And the title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Five: He Did WHAT?!

Mello stood nervously at the door, watching the hallway to make sure no one came past who they didn't want to see at the moment.

Behind him, Matt was humming something brightly under his breath, completely in his element.

_~"There was a man back in '95, whose heart ran out of summers, but before he died, I asked him, wait, what's the sense in life, come over me, come over me"~_ he sang quietly.

The familiar sound of his friend's voice soothed Mello's high strung nerves and made him relax a little, but he kept a close eye on the hallway, not yet relaxed enough to let something slip past unseen.

--

Near managed to slip back in to the classroom without anyone noticing he hadn't come in with Roger.

He moved quickly over to where the two girls, Roger and the teacher were. Passing a cool, damp cloth to Roger while he placed an identical one on Linda's forehead. This was the signal for them to slowly start coming around.

"Wha…? Roger… Near? What happened?" the blonde girl asked shakily.

"You fainted in the middle of class" Near told her.

"Did I?" Linda asked, "wait" the girls eyes widened in fear and Near made a mental note to congratulate her on her acting skills once all of this was over, "what happened to Annie"

"She's right here" Roger comforted the seemingly distressed girl, "she passed out around the same time as yourself."

"Is she okay?"

'_Cue Annie waking up' _Near thought to himself

"She appears to be coming around now" Roger said as Near hid a quiet smile, "are you alright?" the man asked the small red haired girl.

"I—what happened? I remember Mello leaving and then…" Annie trailed off and Near smiled encouragingly at her, both of the girls were performing well up to expectations.

"We passed out…" Linda said, gingerly sitting up and putting a hand out to steady herself.

--

"Why the hell does Roger not have any, as in not even _one tiny scrap_, of incriminating evidence _anywhere_ on _any_ computer?" Matt growled after ten minutes of fruitless searching.

Mello looked over from where he was standing, "maybe you should try poking around in the drawers?" he suggested, "Roger knows he can't work computers for shit so maybe he prefers not to put anything on there because others, like you, actually _know_ what they're doing on the machines and could find a heap of dirt on him in seconds"

Matt looked up, "y'know…that's actually a smart idea…" he said, pulling open the first drawer.

"Of _course_ it's a good idea" Mello huffed, "_I_ came up with it"

Matt just kept searching through drawers looking for something blackmail worthy.

--

'_How much time has passed?'_ Near wondered silently as he followed Roger back to the classroom from taking Linda and Annie to the infirmary, _'not enough'_ he answered himself as he glimpsed the time on Roger's wristwatch.

--

"FOUND IT!" Matt yelled triumphantly

"Kepp it down" Mello hissed, "do you _want_ everyone to come running in here?"

"It doesn't matter anymore Mells, I've got the answer to all our problems" Matt sad smugly but in a much quieter tone

Mello sighed, there was never any arguing with the red haired gamer when he got like this, "what did you find?" he asked.

"This" proclaimed Matt proudly, holding up a nondescript notebook that had seen better days.

"A notebook?" Mello asked raising an eyebrow, "What's that got to do with anything?"

Matt smirked and came out from behind the desk so he could show his friend what was written across the front cover: "PROPERTY OF ROGER WOLFE: KEEP OUT" was printed across in bold black writing and Mello was shocked he hadn't noticed it sooner.

"And even better, there's more" Matt grinned.

"Okay so maybe it is relevant" the blond admitted with a grin of his own.

--

(**A/N: ** For you CANDY chan, because Matt doesn't hate Natalie Cole. And for Jenny too, cos I just love my only related-by-blood Nee chan oh-so-much ^_~)

_~"Say it's only a paper moon sailing over a cardboard sea but it wouldn't be make believe if you believed in me. Yes it's only a canvas sky hanging over a muslin tree but it wouldn't be make believe if you believed in me"~_ Matt's voice echoed through the slightly open door and down the hallway, reaching the ears of Roger as he hurried back to his office after remembering the troublemaking pair he had left there.

"Maaaaaaatt" Mello's voice tried to break in, "can it _not_ be Natalie Cole?"

_~"Without your love, it's a honky tonk parade."~_ Matt sang on in cheerful defiance, _~"without your love it's a melody played in a penny arcade"~_

Roger increased his speed unconsciously, Matt should not be sounding so cheerful at the moment…

"Hey Roger!" the blond chocoholic said before snapping a chunk of chocolate off the block with his teeth once the greying man opened the door.

Roger froze at the door and took a moment to survey the room.

Mello was sitting the what Roger fondly called his "boss chair" with his feet propped up on the desk (**A/N:**__sound familiar CANDY chan? ^_~) eating chocolate while Matt was sitting on top of the desk, crumpling several important documents, with his back turned to Roger and appeared to be flicking through something, a pile of notebooks with a bright red ribbon placed carelessly atop them beside him.

_~"It's a Barnum and Bailey world just as phony as it can be but it wouldn't be make believe if you believed in me"~_ Matt continued to sing, oblivious to Roger's presence in the doorway.

"Matt, Roger's back" Mello said, poking his friend with one of his feet.

"Huh?" Matt twisted around, "Oh! Hey Roger!"

Something wasn't right. Mello was smirking in something that looked awfully like triumph and Matt was _grinning_.

"What are you reading?" Roger asked, trying to work out what was going on here. Wrong move.

Matt's grinned widened and Mello _smiled_.

"Just something I found while I was bored and poking through your drawers, hope you don't mind about that" something in the boy's tone said that Roger _did_ mind terribly but wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

"May I see it?" he asked instead.

Matt held up an old, worn notebook. Roger recognised it immediately. It was his old diary from when he was in highschool.

The greying man paled.

Mello chuckled sinisterly, "that's right Roger, now, why don't we just say that the past couple of days never happened and Matt was called here to discuss computerised security or something and in exchange, Matt won't put the contents of that note book all over the internet and make sure international newspapers get a copy for the front page"

Roger looked between the two boys in front of him. Matt was idly flipping through his old diary while Mello looked like the cat who had been hand fed the cream.

He sighed, "Alright, is that all?"

Mello's smirk grew bigger (who knew it was possible?) "for now" he said ominously.

Roger gulped and nodded and the two left the office and headed back to their classroom.

--

"I trust you managed?" Near asked that night at dinner when he, again, sat with Matt and Mello.

"M'hmm" Matt said absently, still reading through the diary. Mello rolled his eyes.

"Ignore him, he's just too absorbed in Roger's pitiful teenage life" Near looked at the blond curiously, unsure of what he meant, Mello smirked, "we got Roger's diaries from when he was in high school" he explained to the pale boy.

"Guys we gotta try this sometime" Matt said, still not looking up from his book.

"What?" Mello and Near asked in unison.

Matt held the book open and showed them a passage, "Roger calls it 'Applecoke'" he said.

"A drink?"

"Yeah, its supposed to be really good…maybe that's why Roger won't drink straight coke anymore…" Matt mumbled, taking the diary back and was just about to keep reading when a glass was shoved in his face.

Matt made a questioning noise at Mello who replied to his unspoken question with "you get to try it first"

Matt shrugged and carefully poured apple juice into the glass until it was half filled, then he continued to fill up the rest of the glass with vanilla coke and hesitantly took a sip.

His eyes widened and he quickly swallowed more and more until his glass was empty. He then filled it up again with the strange mixture and was about to gulp that one down too when Mello stopped him.

"So its good then?" the blond asked.

The gamer merely nodded before gulping down his applecoke.

Mello and Near exchanged looks before hurrying to fill their own glasses with the drink.

--

**A/N:** And that was chapter five, now Dei chan is safe!!

Next up will be Sasori no Akasuna (Sasori of the red sand) from Naruto.

In the next chapter we have Mello and Near having an EPIC battle, over what? Well, you'll just have to wait and see.

CANDY, I'm sorry about the whole Mello and jazz thing, its just how things worked out.

Oh! And Applecoke is really that good (in my opinion anyways) try it out and let me know what you think. You don't have to use vanilla coke but I prefer it to normal coke personally. Still, up to you. So try it out! I'd love to hear your opinions.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter (except for the last one which is Matt and Mello) and will only save characters I believe should be saved. if you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

And thus I would like to thank CANDY chan for her love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	6. Chapter Six: Christimas Valentines

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Sasori from Naruto.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #) 54 Christmas Valentines

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Eleven by Lisa Miller. And the title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

****IMPORTANT!!!**** This is set a few years after the last chapter. Mello, who has just had his birthday, is now 15. Matt and Near are 14.

Chapter Five: Christmas Valentines

"I still can't believe that Christmas is just over a week away." Matt said as he flopped back onto his bed.

Mello ignored him, instead focusing on his holiday homework.

Because it was so close to Christmas, Roger had decided (with a little prompting from Mello and the fact that Matt had put all of the diaries onto his computer for easier access) that the children at Wammy's would have a two week holiday beginning a week before Christmas and ending just after the new year.

Suddenly there was a timid knock on their door. Matt glanced up at Mello who just kept on with his homework, sighed, and went to see who it was.

Pulling open the door he found Near standing there with his hands held shyly behind his back and a pink flush adorning his cheeks.

"Near, what's up?" Matt asked, thankful for company other than Mello's silent presence.

Near's blush deepened slightly as he brought his hands out from behind his back and held out a white and red candy cane

"Will you be my Christmas Valentine?" he asked softly, his grey eyes meeting Matt's bright green ones.

Before Matt could say anything Mello's voice cut across them sharply "No."

The two boys at the door turned to look at Mello who had half turned in his chair and had a slightly feral look about him.

"Mel…" Matt began hesitantly.

"I forbid you to accept, Matt." Mello growled.

"Why shouldn't I?" Matt snapped back, "Its not like you were going to ask me or anything!" he turned back to Near and was about to apologise about his roommate when Mello's hand on his arm stopped him.

"Matt."

Matt turned back to look at his blond friend and raised an eyebrow in query, "Yes?"

Mello appeared to come to a decision and leaned forward to press his lips against the gamers.

"Mel… what?" Matt murmured once Mello had pulled away.

"Matt please," the blond whispered, invading the red haired gamer's space to slide an arm around his waist, "be mine"

Near just watched these proceedings unfold before his eyes until he noticed the tears threatening to spill out of his eyes when he quietly left, closing the door behind him.

--

_~"Unpack, I'll get around to it. Don't think I like the sound of it. Unstack before the next load's in."~_

That night, the music streaming from the rec-room was sadder than ever before.

_~"Came back, to make a start on it. This time, get to the heart of it. If I can find out where to begin. Stalling, you know that I'm stalling. What do I need all of this time for?"~_

Oblivious to everything but his music, Near didn't notice the door of the rec-room slide open to reveal Mello standing there.

_~"Only reading headlines, and too long avoiding deadlines, I think I, I paid that bill before. So I'll wipe off the old messages, and white-out the wrong passages, and write out a list I can't ignore."~_

Near's voice had a childlike quality to it that was sweet and deceivingly innocent, much like the pale child himself.

_~"Calling, is that someone calling? I'll just turn the music up a little louder. Play dumb, you think I don't know I play dumb. I only hope I don't play dumb 'til you believe I am."~_

Mello stepped silently into the room and slid the door noiselessly shut as he waited for Near to finish.

_~"Falling, feels like I'm falling. Why don't you just grab me by my shoulders and shake me, shake me out of this. Make me see my senselessness and wake me before the eleventh hour, before the eleventh hour."~_

Near let the chords echo through the almost empty room and jumped when a loud, echoing clap followed the chords.

Looking up to see Mello standing there, Near's already pale face became drained of blood.

"Just what did you think you were trying to prove with your little stunt earlier?" Mello asked in a faux friendly tone, "Matt has been mine before you came here and will be mine until long after we leave."

"You're awfully confident for someone who didn't have the guts to make a move til someone else did." Near retorted, wondering what he was doing. Mello was crazy. Near had known that since the moment he had first laid eyes on him. And yet…there was just something about Matt that made going up against a crazy boy not only older but much stronger than he, seem not such a crazy idea after all…

--

Matt woke up with a start. His nightmare already fading as his heartbeat slowly returned to normal.

Staring up at the ceiling, he decided that he would not be able to get to sleep for some time and so he may as well finish writing up that program that would hopefully be instrumental to him hacking into the FBI database.

Sitting up and pulling out his laptop, Matt couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. He glanced across at Mello's bed just to check on him (Mello was prone to bad nightmares every now and again) and found it empty of the moody blond.

Matt's brow furrowed but he tried to shrug it off, figuring that Mello had just gone on a chocolate raid or something. It had happened before. But the gamer still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong and knew that he couldn't work on his delicate program until he figured out what was wrong.

Sighing, he got up and put his laptop on his desk before grabbing a pair of sweatpants and a shirt which he quickly threw on before opening the door and quietly creeping down the hall.

--

"Never before has something of this level of transgression occurred at Wammy's House." Roger was _fuming_, "I had hoped you all knew better then to sink to this level and quite frankly I am disappointed in you all." here, Roger entered full lecture mode and Mello zoned out.

He didn't think he had done anything _that_ bad. Near was hardly scratched. It was the piano that had taken the brunt of the blond's rage.

"…And as such, I'm afraid your punishment has been taken out of my hands."

"Wait what?"

Roger stared at Mello disapprovingly, knowing that the boy had not been paying attention to his lecture.

"The piano was L's, he was quite fond of it apparently." Matt said quietly. He had been quiet ever since he had stopped Mello from using his leftover rage to bash Near into a bloody pulp after the piano was already beyond all hopes of repair.

"_Indeed I was"_ an electronically distorted voice rang out suddenly, coming from a white laptop that was sitting on Roger's desk. _"It was the first thing I had ever bought with my own money"_ the voice continued.

The three children in Roger's office were silent. They all knew who the voice belonged to without being told.

"_And so Roger kindly allowed me to decide on your punishment" _the voice went on calmly, _"I have decided, that you three shall all be sent off to boarding school in America until I am convinced that you have learnt your lesson. Furthermore, you shall be placed into classes that are suitable to your age group rather than your intelligence."_ The voice intoned emotionlessly.

The three boys remained silent until they were dismissed.

"This is so unfair" Mello was the one to break the silence as they left the office, "And why are you being sentenced with us? You didn't do anything wrong!"

"I'm there to make sure you two don't blow anything up." Matt said tiredly, rubbing his eyes.

"Whatever, I still don't see why we have to go all the way to America."

"It's to ensure we don't run away…" Near spoke up quietly, hesitantly, "I assume neither of you have any connection to America?"

Matt and Mello looked at each other for a moment, "No." they said together, albeit Mello rather reluctantly.

"Never even been there." Matt added, glancing at Mello out of the corner of his eye.

Near nodded as if the two had just confirmed something for him. "Yes, that _would _explain it…"

"Explain _what_?" Mello growled.

"It's not just because of the piano… He wants to see how well we do in a foreign environment with no one to rely on but ourselves." The small, pale boy answered.

"So…we just have to survive school in America without killing one another?" Matt asked.

"No," Near said, smiling gently, "It's not a test of whether or not we can survive. It's a test of how fast we can escape… We have to escape and make our way back here by ourselves. This should prove interesting…"

Matt and Mello exchanged glances. Both were thinking the same thing '_This could be fun…'_

--

**A/N:** And that was chapter six, Sasori hath been saved.

Next up will be Hidan from Naruto.

In the next chapter we have the boys getting to their new school and more plotting..

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter (except for the last one which is Matt and Mello) and will only save characters I believe should be saved. if you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

And thus I would like to thank CANDY chan and Morii-chan for their love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	7. Chapter Seven: Operation: EBtE Begins!

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Hidan from Naruto.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #) 2- Yokobue

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing and Jenny-onni for re-beta-ing

I would also like to add that from this chapter forth Near is going to be getting so much adoration from me because he deserves it after CANDY's latest fic, Rhymes.

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter will be including I Saw It On Your Keyboard by Hellogoodbye. And the title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Seven: Operation: Escape Back to England Begins!

Matt yawned and stretched as he exited the plane just outside of New York. "So this is what America's like huh?" he asked no one in particular as he made his way to baggage collection with Mello and Near.

Roger had told them that as part of their schooling, they were to travel to America by themselves. They would be driven to the airport, helped to check in and then they were on their own.

Neither of the others said anything so Matt shrugged and got his beloved DS from his worn backpack. Turning it on, he noted with dismay that he would have very little time on it before the charge ran out.

Sighing, he returned the device known to him as Betsey to his bag and took out instead Yokobue, his MP3 player.

Turning her on, he put the earphones in his ears and pressed play, content to listen to the last song he had playing.

_~"There exists a melody that, just might change your mind"~ _he sang softly, ignoring the people around him, _~"oh if only I knew the key to sing to make you mine. And then I saw it on your keyboard, you saw it on my sleeve, oh I never knew a heart existed outside of make-believe, then I saw it on your keyboard __I knew at least that I might have a chance to catch a shooting star"~_

Near stared at the red haired gamer in shock.

He hadn't known that Matt could sing at all let alone this well. And to sing like that in public, obviously not caring who saw him. Near shook his head and sighed silently, there was no way _he'd_ ever be able to match the gamer, this, along with everything else, was just one more piece of evidence that Matt was far out of the small, pale child's league.

Mello's face softened as he heard his longtime roommate and friend sing, confident at last that things could go back to normal between them.

He didn't know what had come over him, that made him kiss Matt that time except that he knew he couldn't stand to see Near, that stupid little sheep who somehow managed to beat him in everything else, take the gamer away from him too.

Of everything Near had taken from him, Matt was the one who made Mello snap, to shatter the barrier Mello had created oh so many years ago to hide behind, to prevent anyone getting too close to him, or close to him at all, but most importantly, to stop him getting hurt anymore.

Mello had never been an easy child. His parents had enrolled him in karate, judo and tae kwon do at an early age in an attempt to calm him down somewhat, figuring that all that exercise and discipline would wear him down a little and make him easier to manage. Which it did.

Those few years were some of the best for the blond. The control he felt when he perfectly executed a punch or a kick calmed him. That's why he wanted to be the best. Because when he came to Wammy's, there was no karate, no judo and no tae kwon do. There was no more rigid discipline and no control. His very existence, like so many others at Wammy's, was completely focussed on the ranking system. On being number one. That was the only way he could have control over anything anymore. His rankings were the only things he allowed himself to fix upon, to allow to become routine. Because he never knew when another disaster would strike, like it had that time when his house had burned down, his parents still trapped inside.

Matt had been the one to change that. Matt, with his too wide eyes and shy mannerisms. Matt, with his love for Natalie Cole and his obsession for Hellogoodbye. Matt, who still cried at night when he thought Mello was safely asleep. Matt, who was too trusting back then, too innocent but had slowly become more cynical over the years. Matt, with his video games and too good to be true hacking skills. Matt, with his kind works and smile that never quite reached his eyes. Matt who stole chocolate from the kitchens for him after the blond's stash was confiscated for some reason or another. Matt, who glanced at the instruments in the rec-room with wistful eyes when he thought no one was looking. Matt, who never complained when Mello did anything totally unreasonable. Matt, who never lectured and only ranted about some computer or video game related subjects. Matt, who saw past the mood swings and the fierce exterior. Matt, who had dived straight in and cracked his barrier with the first glimpse of his frightened eyes. Matt, who hadn't pushed him away after he kissed him.

Matt, who Mello was slowly beginning to understand he liked more then a friend, more than he probably should. More than was safe.

Matt sighed in relief and collapsed onto his bed in the room he would be sharing with Near and Mello.

The tour of their new school had taken longer than he'd expected, the school grounds themselves being nearly as big as the grounds back at Wammy's, only these were filled with more buildings and many, many more people. People who looked at them strangely as they had walked past.

"We should come up with a plan of escape," Mello said as he began setting up his desk in that particular way of his.

Matt groaned, "Escape? Mells, we just got here. Think of it as a break."

Mello shot Matt a look that he didn't catch, having his eyes closed. But Near did. It was a look filled with empathy and compassion with an undercurrent of longing.

"Matt is right." Near spoke up to save the blond having to respond to that, "We should stay here a little while, after all, if we are going to escape we would need to work together, something I am not prepared to do at the present time given the circumstances."

Mello's eyes narrowed at the pale child but he nodded stiffly none the less, "So what would you propose, Princess?"

Near made no comment about the nickname, Mello had been calling him such things for years now. "We should prove to Roger and to L how well we can do by ourselves" he said instead, "We should take over this school as we did Wammy's."

Matt sat up, leaning against the wall his bed was pushed against, "That's actually a good idea Near, everyone back at Wammy's holds out to hear a word from one or another of us three, we could have this school wired in a matter of months, maybe weeks! Think about it Mells, if we've got the entire school on our side, escape will be just that much easier. Not to mention if we get some of the teachers on our side they can cover our escape for a while… And then there's the fact that it'll be just _fun._"

Mello nodded slowly at his friend's words, "So how will we be doing this then? And Matty, we should really be starting to use the cover names Roger arranged for us"

"Whatever you say _Miles_" Matt said grinning, "but he's right, how exactly can we do this?"

"Simple" Near said, "We will all split up, that way we can cover the main cliques, once we have them under our thumbs so to speak, we can plot out the rest of our escape. I, as Number One, shall belong with the nerds."

"Shotty the skaters" Matt said grinning and fiddling with the shades he now wore in place of his goggles, not being prepared to risk them being lost or damaged while on foreign soil.

"Which leaves you with the 'It' crowd, I suppose." Near concluded, looking at Mello with no expression on his small, childlike face.

Mello smirked, "I'm fine with that." he said, "So we'll begin phase one of Operation: Escape back to England at dinner shall we?"

Near nodded, "The sooner the better" he said.

"Well then we should get changed into our uniforms Dominik" Mello smirked.

Near said nothing but nodded simply, unfolding his new school uniform and getting changed silently.

Matt groaned again, "Why do we have to start school tomorrow anyway? I'm still jetlagged from the flight and probably will be for _weeks_"

"Don't worry Max, you'll fit right in with the skaters who'll probably all be on something." Mello smirked at his friend who grinned back at him.

"I'm more worried about how pretty little M will fit in with the It crowd with purple bags under his eyes" Matt responded easily.

Mello's smirk widened as he pulled out a little tube of something, "This, my dear Maxwell, is known as concealer." he said smugly, walking into the bathroom attached to their room to apply it. When he came out, you couldn't tell that he had just been on an 8 and a half hour flight from Britton and then a tour of a large school without rest.

Matt whistled, "Looking good M." he said, looking up from his laptop and giving his friend the once over.

"Maxwell, you have to get changed for dinner" Near said quietly.

Matt grinned easily at him, "all in good time Nik, all in good time" he said, returning to his computer.

"What are you doing?" Mello asked him, leaning over him to look at the screen.

"Hacking into the student data bases and emails so we can get to know a bit more about them." Matt said, "Now shift," he grinned, poking his friend, "You're blocking my light"

Mello rolled his eyes but moved none the less, "You have ten minutes before you really need to get changed so we can get to dinner on time" he said to his friend as he continued to fiddle with the objects on his desk, trying to get them _just_ right.

"Yes sir" Matt mock saluted, "I'm just setting up a program that will check the data base and email system for anything interesting without getting caught while we're at dinner. I'll pull an all-nighter tonight I think. I'm behind with a program some one's paying me to do."

"Whoa wait what?" Mello said, "Matt! You can't just make up programs for anyone. You have a responsibility at Wammys as one of the top five-"

"Mells" Matt said seriously, looking at his friend from over the top of his laptop lid, "We're not going to be in the top five when we get back. We will be on the bottom"

"_What?_"

"Matt's right" Near said, "We are not participating in the weekly tests therefore we will get zero on them until we manage to get back."

Mello's face darkened, "can you rig the computer system at Wammy's?" he asked Matt seriously.

"Of course I can" Matt said, "but it won't do you any good, Roger does everything by hand these days remember? Nothing I do will make any difference."

Mello scowled, "We are going to show them just _what_ the top three from Wammy's House can do" he growled.

Matt grinned and Near nodded once, all of them eager to take up any challenges presented to them on their way.

**A/N:** And that was chapter six, Hidan hath thus been saved.

Next up will be Sirius Black from Harry Potter.

In the next chapter we have dinner and fangirls.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember, I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. if you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

And thus I would like to thank CANDY chan for her love.

Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter Eight: Emotions

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Sirius Black from Harry Potter.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #) 42- school girls. Meeting them. Being curious. Even bitchy. Even fangirly (though they can't be actual fangirls)

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Mario Cart Love Song by Sam the title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Eight: Emotions.

Matt slouch deepened as he walked into the dining hall. There were just so many people! It wasn't normal and he didn't like it at all.

"Change of plans," he murmured to Mello, "let's just get out of here as quickly as possible."

Mello smirked at that. "What's wrong _Maxy_, getting cold feet are we?"

Matt merely groaned as the three of them found seats; he knew he couldn't win against his friend when he got like this.

"_Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen"_ The students and staff chanted as one before sitting down and beginning their meal.

The three Wammy's boys were silent as all around them and indeed, throughout the hall, whispers and 'covert' glances were sent their way.

Near ate quickly and efficiently as always, Mello was more harsh while Matt tried to keep his pace slow and steady, trying to pretend he couldn't hear the whispers or feel the stares.

The meal ended with no major mishap and the students were dismissed.

That was when it began.

"You're new here right?"

"Did you just come this morning?"

"Where are you from?"

"I saw you touring the school earlier, is it bigger than your last?"

"You're from England right? I heard some of the teachers talking about you"

"Did you all come from the same school?"

"Are you all friends?"

"Are you homesick?"

"Have you ever been to America before?"

"Why did you come here?"

"Is it true you were kicked out of your old school for fighting?"

"Is it true you were kicked out of your last school for making out on the teacher's desk?"

"Can any of you sing? We need a guitarist too"

"Is it true you're all child geniuses?"

"Can you help me with calculus?"

"Is it true you hacked your way through the FBI data base?"

"Are any of you interested in martial arts?"

"Do you have anyone _special_ back home?"

"Will you go out with me?"

"Will you tutor me for English?"

"Can I get a photo to send to my friend? She doesn't believe there are any cute guys here"

Matt raised an eyebrow and glanced at Near and Mello. One look was all it took for him to know that they weren't going to say anything.

The gamer sighed, wanting nothing more than to get back to his dorm and sleep or work on his beloved laptop, Tangerine.

"ENOUGH!" he yelled finally, the exhaustion he was feeling seeping through his words. "We're really tired, all we want is sleep right now so if you'll excuse us?"

Using a tactic he'd learnt off Mello, Matt strode forward in the direction of their dorm as if he already ruled the place and everyone naturally parted before him to let the three boys through.

--

The first thing Matt did upon entering their shared room was pull off his tie "Thank God, I can breathe again" he said before grabbing Tangerine and checking up on the program he'd built before dinner.

Scrolling through the information presented to him he snorted in disgust, "How the hell can there be no one interesting here at all?" he asked no one in particular.

Mello, across the room on his own bed opened a new bar of chocolate and snapped a piece of it off viciously.

Near gave an almost visible sigh of relief as he changed into his PJs, his first time wearing them since the three had left Wammy's the evening before.

--

The next morning, Near awoke to the sound of fingers tapping keys on a computer keyboard. Sitting up sleepily, he looked around for the source of the noise. Upon seeing Matt still hunched over his 'Tangerine' Near felt the strangest twinge of…something.

Looking around for Mello, the pale boy found him curled in a ball under his blankets. Turning back to Matt he found bright green eyes suddenly focused on him.

"Morning," Matt said quietly.

"Good morning" Near replied just as quietly.

"Sleep well?"

"Well enough, you?"

Matt grinned at that, "Nope, didn't sleep a wink last night. But I did get that program for the guy back in London completed and I even managed to finish something that will _hopefully_ get me into the FBI database."

Near peered closer at the other boy, noticing for the first time the heavy bags under his eyes. Bags that were not the result of merely not sleeping for two days. "How often do you sleep ,Matt?" the boy asked quietly, almost afraid to hear the answer.

The gamer shrugged, "Whenever I really need it," he replied, seemingly unconcerned, "I've never slept much, even before Wammy's so I'm used to it now"

Near was silent. How could someone, especially one so young, just give up on sleep like that? "So," he began hesitantly, "is that why you wear the goggles?"

Matt nodded, "Yep. Roger would try and force me to sleep if he realised"

"Does Mello know?"

"Of course. He's been my room mate ever since I got here and that was six years ago."

"Oh"

The conversation lapsed as Matt got back to work and Near alternated between watching the red head and the blond.

Suddenly, Mello started to twitch in his sleep. Immediately, Matt rose from his bed and walked swiftly to the blond, shaking him awake, "Mells, Mells! Wake up" he said urgently.

Mello stirred slowly, "Matt?" he asked sleepily.

"I'm here Mells."

"Wha?"

"You had another one."

"Oh."

Near watched the exchange silently, wondering what was going unsaid. He suddenly felt very cut off and lonely. He didn't have a room mate. He didn't have anyone he could really call a close friend. He didn't even have anyone he felt comfortable enough around to hold a decent conversation. _'Maybe that will change soon though.'_ he thought, looking at the gamer and the chocoholic, _'Maybe I can use this estrangement from everything familiar to my advantage...'_

--

Music was their first class after breakfast where they had again been bombed by questions. Because Matt wasn't allowed to wear his shades with the school uniform, he'd borrowed some of Mello's concealer to hide the bags beneath his eyes.

"Class! We have three new students from England who will be in our class from now on" the teacher said once everyone had arrived.

The three Wammy's boys were then made to introduce themselves to the class and say what their favourite instrument was.

"My name is Dominik Hardwick" Near introduced himself, "My favourite instrument is the piano"

The teacher, one Ms Cav (sorry but I had to, there's just no way I could leave her out. LOVE YOU MS CAV!!), nodded, "Next" she said in her warm, clear voice.

"I'm Maxwell Jenkins" Matt said, fingering something hidden in his pocket, "My favourite instrument would probably have to be the guitar." a lump formed in the gamers throat but no one noticed. No one, of course, except for Mello.

"And last we have..?"

"I'm Miles Nelson" Mello said, shooting a covert, worried glance at his best friend. "I don't really have a favourite instrument…maybe the violin or cello?"

Near looked at Mello with barely concealed shock, _'Strings? That doesn't seem to suit him at all.'_

"Very good. Dominik I think we'll put on piano, Maxwell on acoustic?" Matt nodded in assent, "and Miles on the violin"

The three boys hurried off to find their instruments.

"Because we have so many new people, you may spend the lesson getting to know each other and otherwise jamming or whatever" Ms Cav said once everyone was settled. A cheer rose up from the class and the noise that ensued could be heard from the other side of the school grounds.

Matt gently thumbed out some tabs and then some chords before finally resigning himself to the fact that no matter what, he just could _not_ get away from _that_ song.

_~"You be my princess, and I'll be your toad. I'll follow behind you on Rainbow Road"~_ he began softly, hoping that no one else would hear him. Which of course means that everyone did. Around the room, people fell silent to listen to the magic of Matt's voice as he sang the song that held so much pain and memories for him. _~"Protect you from red shells wherever you go I promise. No one can touch us if we pick up the star. And if you spin out you can ride in my car. When we slide together we generate sparks in our wheels and our hearts. The finish line, is just around the bend. I'll pause this game, so our love will never end, lets go again. The blue shell is coming, so I'll go ahead, if you hang behind it will hit me instead, but never look back cos I'm down but not dead I'll catch up to you. Don't worry about Bowzer or DK, just eat this glowing mushroom and they'll all fade away and the finish line, is just around the bend. I'll pause this game, so our love will never end, lets go again. The finish line, is just around the bend. I'll pause this game, so our ove will never end. Lets go again, __to the mushroom cup, and the flower cup, and the star cup, and the reverse cup. Walawalawalawalawa walawalawaluigiiiiii"~_ Matt smiled sadly as the strummed the last chord, unshed tears obscuring his vision.

He looked up, stunned as the room slowly at first, then more and more steadily broke into applause.

Mello looked at his friend in shock. _Never_ before had he heard the entire song, his friend having skipped it even before the first line ended every time before this.

It was…beautiful. Especially with Matt singing it. Especially when you knew the significance behind it.

The blond caught the gamer's eye and nodded once, _'Your mum would be proud'_ he said through his eyes.

'_Thanks'_ the gamer replied.

Near watched Mello and Matt talk with their eyes and found a strange emotion welling up inside of him. Something that made him want to slap Mello or to drag Matt away from him, anything to stop their silent conversation that he knew he could never be a part of.

Anything that might give him the chance to take Mello's place.

This revelation shocked him. He never imagined how strongly he could really feel. He didn't know why he was thinking such things or what made Matt so special, and it scared him.

The force of his own emotions shocked and scared him, but it also excited him. _'So this is the strength of human emotions…'_

--

**A/N:** And that was chapter eight, Sirius hath thus been saved.

Next up will be Nymphadora Tonks from Harry Potter.

Nyawwwww, look at Near being all jealous. ^_~.

I know there weren't actually schoolgirls mentioned as such but they were there at dinner and in the class. There will be more of them later.

In the next chapter we have more fangirls, more jealous!Near and possessive!Mello before we get into the interesting part of this arc.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. If you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

And thus I would like to thank CANDY chan and Katy Edison for their love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	9. Chapter Nine: Fangirls and boys

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Nymphadora Tonks from Harry Potter.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #) 42- school girls. Meeting them. Being curious. Even bitchy. Even fangirly.

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including nothing actually, my first chapter without at least one song. The title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Eight: _Fangirls_… and boys

Word of Matt's musical genius spread quickly throughout the school and by the time lunchtime came around, the gamer was having trouble finding a quiet spot to sit and eat in peace. Until of course, he found a place behind a block of bathrooms where the skaters chilled.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked the guy closest to him, out of breath from running from his numerous fans.

"Go ahead, mate." the skater said, his accent very different from anything Matt had ever heard before. "Want a drag?" he offered the gamer his cigarette.

Matt accepted it with a nod and put it to his lips, breathing in the smoke and nicotine before giving it back to the skater and sitting down next to his fellow foreigner, "Thanks"

"No problem mate" the skater said, "I'm Brad, from that merry old land Down Under"

'_An Aussie'_ Matt thought to himself, "Max, from the Motherland"

Brad laughed at that, "You're a cool guy Max, who were you running from if you don't mind me asking?"

Matt pulled a face, "Somehow word got out about me in music this morning" he said.

"Ahh yes." Brad said, "You're the guy with the rad skills for guitar and singing yeah? I'm on the old 'coustic too."

"Yeah."

"That's cool man. Hey, you really as smart as they all say?" Brad asked, flicking ash off the end of his cancer stick.

"Well I dunno how smart they're saying I am but I'm no where near as smart as Miles or Dominik." Matt replied easily, "actually, the main reason people reckon I'm smart is cos I hacked into the school database back home and messed up everyone's exam results for the laughs y'know." Brad nodded, "Yeah, well the headmaster disagreed and sent me here as punishment... and to keep the other two from killing each other. Well, Miles from killing Nik anyways."

Brad laughed again, "You're real cool, dude. So what's the deal with those two?"

"Miles, the blonde, smashed up a real valuable piano and was about to start on Nik's face before someone pulled him off the guy." Matt said, deciding to stick to the truth as much as was safe, "So they were sent here as punishment and in hopes the foreign environment will encourage those two to get along better."

"Think it'll work?"

Matt thought seriously about the question for a moment, "I think M'll cool down enough that he doesn't try to break Nik's face every chance he gets but I don't think they'll ever really get along." the thought saddened Matt but he knew that neither of his stubborn friends would change just because he wanted them to.

"That's cool. You seem to know a lot about them, you guys close?"

"Not really" Matt said, thinking on the spot, "Me and M used to room together back home and our old school was really small. So we were always in each other's classes. We are here too, and we're all rooming together so…"

"That's cool. Hey you doing computer studies?"

Matt breathed a silent sigh of relief, glad for the change of topic. "Yeah, its gonna be boring as hell though since I could probably teach it better then the guy paid to do it"

Brad laughed again, "That's cool, maybe you could help me out a bit?"

"Sure" Matt replied, happy to be with people his own age and of normal intelligence rather than being surrounded by geniuses like Near and Mello, "Hey, how'd you like to start averaging A-B in all your subjects?"

"Not possible dude, I'm not exactly the best student."

Matt smirked in a very Mello-esque way, "You don't have to be, dude. All you need is me and this" he pulled out his beloved Tangerine and opened her, pulling up the school database before he could see the program he'd set that morning to breaking through the FBI's firewalls at work and ask more questions.

"Whoa! Dude! Isn't that like, illegal?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Dude that's so cool! I'm never gonna fail maths again!"

Matt laughed, "You're cool Brad."

--

Near slid quietly into the room where the science club were meeting, closing the door silently behind him.

"You're one of the new students" a tall, stern looking girl said.

"My name is Dominik" Near replied.

"Are you here to mock us or to join us?" the girl asked.

"Join you." Near said, "If you would like to present a test or challenge for me to prove myself by I would be happy to oblige."

The girl smirked, "I was hoping you'd say something like that" she said, gesturing to a table with test and pencil already waiting for him, "Please complete the test as quickly as you can. It is not just on science but maths, English, humanities, and other things we felt should be included."

Near nodded and at down at the table and started writing.

Ten minutes later he handed his completed test to the girl having completed everything to perfection and checked it over twice.

The girl checked his answers over and nodded. "Welcome Dominik, it's a pleasure to have you as part of our club. My name is Lucy and I am head of all of the academic clubs in this school, I would like to offer you a place in each of them."

"Thank you Lucy" Near replied solemnly, "I would be honoured to join you."

--

In contrast to his fellow conspirators, Mello did not approach anyone, nor did he run from anyone.

Instead, he spent lunchtime by himself, sitting at a table in the cafeteria glaring at anyone who made a move to talk to him.

His self imposed isolation did not go unnoticed with many people looking at him and whispers about him filled the room.

The blond inwardly smirked, an outward scowl still firmly in place. Everything was going according to plan.

"You're new right?" a high, chirpy voice broke through the silence that had descended in the immediate area around him.

Mello raised an eyebrow at the girl, silently telling her that he was above her and she should go back to her place.

The girl ignored his warning and sat down, waving a few of her friends over, "I'm Claire, where are your friends?"

"I don't know who you're talking about." speaking for the first time in hours.

"You know, the other new guys, you're friends with them right?"

"No I am not. I get along well enough with Max only because he has been my room mate since we were eight. Dominik I cannot stand."

The girls and few guys who had come at the girl's beckon leaned closer, sensing some hot new gossip.

"Why not?" Claire, their self-proclaimed spokesperson asked.

Mello's eyes narrowed, "Lets just say that he is the reason we are all here right now."

"Did you get into a fight?" one of the boys asked.

"No we did not. I smashed a piano he was fond of and was about to begin on his face when the teachers came. It was totally one-sided. That stupid sheep didn't even have a chance."

"Why'd you do it?"

"That sheep had it coming to him from day one" Mello growled, "it just too a while for his justice to come."

One look at Mello's face was enough for the gaggle of people around him to decide that it was best not to ask.

"Hey" Claire said, "Do you want to hang out with us? We're like, the most popular kids around here and all the teachers love us so even if we bash someone its all good. We can help you get back at the albino kid, if you want."

Mello smirked, "_N__ow_ you are speaking my language" he said.

--

That night, the three Wammy's boys sat up after lights out to discuss their achievements that day, Matt still working his way delicately through the FBI database.

"So it looks like we have all successfully infiltrated the different subsections of the school, now it is time to begin phase two where we begin to gain their trust and their loyalty." Near said.

"That may take a while." it was Matt who spoke up, focussed as he was on the FBI, "Humans are fickle creatures. If you seem too eager or too flattering or too anything really, they retract and let you drop. Just let things go normally, Near, try not to outsmart them all or they'll get jealous. Help them out but don't be either too obvious or condescending either."

Both Mello and Near listened to the gamer and took his words seriously for although he was a geek and a recluse, he still had the best people skills of them all.

"Uhh Matt?" Mello said once the gamer was finished giving them advice, "I've been meaning to ask you, what's with the FBI? I thought you said you'd tackle them for your 16th"

Matt nodded, "I did say that but something's come up and Roger asked me to see if I could get information from the intelligence agencies around the world on this one guy. Don't know why though. Not as yet anyway. The bug I put on Watari's phone and computer hasn't come up with anything useful and I have to be really careful seeing as who we're dealing with here"

"Wait, you bugged Watari's phone and computer?"

"Yeah, a while ago actually, a remote controlled bug so it can go dormant for years if need be. The best thing about it is that because its so old, people don't bother blocking against it anymore"

"So, who are they looking for?"

"Well, he didn't actually specify but I've limited it to this one guy because he's the best. And I'll give L nothing but the best. I owe him that much at least."

Near and Mello looked at each other, both fully aware that their friend was dodging the question and knowing that he wouldn't tell them.

'_Oh Matt, what _have_ you got yourself involved with this time?'_

--

**A/N:** And that was chapter nine, Tonks hath thus been saved.

Next up will be Vexen from Kingdom Hearts.

And we finally have the fangirls.

In the next chapter we have the dreaded fillers. I'm sorry but it has to be done.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. If you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

And thus I would like to thank CANDY chan for their love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	10. Chapter Ten: Tears in Heaven

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Vexen from Kingdom Hearts.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #) 4 a toy ship, #) 18 a venus flytrap

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Tabi no Sora Kara by Depapepe and Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton. The title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Ten: Tears in Heaven

The days passed in a blur of faces, names, places and rules for the three Wammy's boys.

Their respective groups introduced them to the school in their own, unique ways. Mello was shown how to sneak out of the dorms at night and where to break into the kitchens. Near was given a key to the science labs and the teachers lounge and told to help himself to coffee whenever he wanted it.

And then there was Matt. Matt's introduction to the school was … _interesting_ to say the least. He was taught how to get his hands on cigarettes, how to skip class without anyone finding out, and how best to piss off the teachers without getting into too much trouble.

It was in music class one morning when the summons came for the boys. The principal wanted to see them

Matt knocked at the door quietly, knowing that there was no way either Mello nor Near would do it instead.

"Enter."

Matt hesitantly pushed open the door and stepped into the brightly lit office.

The three boys looked around in surprise, expecting something more like Rogers homey if rather cluttered and dim office, not this bright modern room with large windows and stylish, if uncomfortable, furniture.

The desk was shaped weirdly and held a macbook computer which Matt scowled at and a bottle with a ship in it as well as a venus flytrap…

"Don't look like that, you haven't done anything wrong." the principal, one Mr Hamilton, said. _'If only you knew...'_ Matt thought to himself. "I merely called you here to speak to you all with regards to a few…unorthodox arrangements put in place for you three.

"Your principal back in England has requested weekly reports on your behaviour in the classroom, your results in the classroom and your behaviour towards each other." Mr Hamilton continued.

Matt inwardly groaned, _'I hate you so much right now Roger Wolfe'_ he thought.

"The problem is," Mr Hamilton continued, unaware of the torment one of his students was going through, "here at Copiosus Prugabumentum High, we take the privacy of our students very seriously and will decline this request unless we have the go ahead from you three."

Matt sighed, knowing that things would be all the worse for all of them if he were to decline, "Its fine," he said, speaking for all of them, "we're used to it back home anyway, we have weekly tests there to see how well we are going against everyone else. It basically ensures that everyone works as hard as they can all the time, those with the highest rankings to retain their rank and those with lower rankings to try and best those above them." He explained.

"I see...' Mr Hamilton said, "May I enquire as to what rankings you three had?"

"First."

"Second."

"I was third."

Mr Hamilton just looked between the three, trying to convince himself they were joking. But between Near's innocence, Mello's fury and Matt's resignation he just couldn't find it within himself to doubt them. "This-" he gulped, "these are your current rankings or…"

"We have all held these rankings ever since Near joined the school." Matt said, bored, "Before then Mello was first and I was second. Our rankings have probably gone down now because we can no longer partake in the weekly tests on Mondays."

Mello scowled at this and even Near looked a little disgruntled, only Matt seemed unfazed by the loss of his position.

"I…see" Mr Hamilton said, "Very well, I shall send Mr Rogers weekly updates on you three, you may return to class now"

The three exited the room without another word, glad to be rid of the man and the room that served only to remind them how far from home they truly were.

--

"Alright everyone! Quiet down." Ms Cav called out through the din, "Now that Nik, M and Max have decided to join us once more, I have an announcement to make."

"You're pregnant?"

"You're getting married?"

"You've got to go on long service leave?"

"We don't have to do any work in music anymore?"

The questions were shot out, rapid fire but Ms Cav just laughed them all aside, "None of the above." she said, "You lucky people have a new assignment for music!" she grinned as the class groaned as one, "Stop that, it's not too bad. You just have to perform a piece of music for the class, I'm even going to let you work in pairs if you want to! No more than pairs though because otherwise this is going to turn into a whole class thing. Rules are: you can pick any piece of music or you can write your own _but_ it must be played on your instruments or be able to transpose to your instruments and still sound good. You will only have the two instruments unless one or both of you can sing and wish to involve voice as well. But remember, this exercise is primarily to show off the music, not the lyrics or sound of your voice, unless you are here as a singer in which case scat is preferable or an a Capella song.

"You can choose your own pairs but if I see anyone mucking around or just plain not working I will split you up and you can perform solo. I want you to have chosen a piece or began to write your own piece by then end of class, go!"

The class scattered, yelling across the room about who they wanted to go with.

"Dude, you got any ideas?" Brad asked Matt over the noise of their classmates, "I dunno any duets with just the old 'coustics."

"Gimme a sec." Matt replied, pulling out Yokobue and beginning to flick through songs.

"Maxwell Jenkins what _are_ you doing?" Ms Cav asked.

"Looking for a song," Matt replied absently, "I know its on here…_found it!"_

"Care to share?"

"Sure" Matt walked over to the speakers and plugged in the little white MP3 player pressing play. A soft, sweet instrumental piece seeped throughout the room.

Matt smiled softly, remembering the hours spent with his mum learning both parts to this song, for once without an overwhelming sense of pain and of loss.

The duet filled the now silent class, soothing those who needed it, and those who didn't.

As the last chord rang throughout the classroom, Claire, Mello's 'friend' asked in a hushed whisper if he could really play that.

Matt nodded, picking out the first few notes absently, "My mum taught me both parts when I was like, five." he said.

"That's so cute!" Claire squealed, "Your mum sounds awesome!"

"She was." Matt replied softly, absently picking out another tune altogether, a tune the class had heard only once on the Wammy's boys' first day there.

A few girls began to whisper amongst themselves, tears filling their eyes as they glanced over at Matt every two seconds.

"Wh-hat happened?" one of them asked in a hushed voice.

Matt stared at her as his own tears began to well, Mello was about to snap at them to mind their own f**king business when his friend spoke quietly, "She died in a car crash just before my eighth birthday" he said, looking down at the guitar in his hands, brilliant green eyes seeing nothing but his mothers face that morning as she asked him what type of cake he wanted.

He started, as did everyone else in the room, as a violin began to softly play, _~"Would you know my name, if I saw you in heaven"~_ an undeniably sweet voice sang softly. Everyone looked around for the source, only to see Mello, eyes closed, an expression of pure loss on his face.

The sound of a piano gently wove through the violin as Near joined in with beautiful harmony _~"Would it be the same, if I saw you in heaven? I must be strong, and carry on. For I know, I don't belong, here in heaven"~_

Some of the girls began to cry outright as Matt smiled through his tears at his two friends and roommates.

"Thanks guys..." he whispered softly, too quiet for anyone to hear. But he knew that they heard him anyway.

--

**A/N:** And that was chapter ten (wow, double digits, who's proud of meeee?), Vexen hath thus been saved.

Next up will be Lexaeus from Kingdom Hearts.

In case anyone was wondering, _Copiosus Prugabumentum_ is Latin that loosely translates to "Rich Trash" and is the name of the school in another story of mine called "My Name is Lucinder". I reused it because I feel it's the perfect name for a snob school.

I'm sorry, I had something really cute and fluffy planned out for this chapter because its chapter ten and all, but I couldn't work it into the story so soon, it will probably be a few more chapters I'm afraid.

Oh and for the record, Matt was the only one _not_ originally supposed to have fangirls, strange how these things work out huh?

In the next chapter we have some angst sad to say. But it won't last much longer then the next chapter I promise.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. If you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

And thus I would like to thank CANDY chan for their love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	11. Chapter Eleven: Lost in New York Part I

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Lexaeus from Kingdom Hearts.

This chapter is dedicated to my darling **Angel** because she is awesome and she's the reason I finally got around to updating this (because she's put up three chapters of **Swingball** and I've done none of this.). So go read her fic Swingball as thanks *hinthint* ^_~

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. We don't actually have anything from that list in this chapter. Except maybe schoolgirls…

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including One More Time With Feeling by Regina Spektor. The title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

* * *

Chapter Eleven: Fillers: Lost in NYC part I

Matt's eye twitched as someone banged on the door. Intent on ignoring the person, who the hell bangs that loudly on a door at six in the morning on a _Saturday_ of all things? Matt went back to his Tangerine.

_Bang, bang, bang_.

Apparently there would be no such luck this particular morning. Groaning, Matt got to his feet and opened the door before they could wake Mello, the blond was a bitch in the mornings when he didn't have to wake up and yet was woken anyway.

"What?" he asked the kid standing there. He didn't recognise him, not that that was any surprise. Matt believed in taking notice in the things that would have a direct impact on you and that's it…unless it was involved with a box filled with wires and chips and other such things.

"Uhh, Claire sent me for M" the kid said.

"He's sleeping. You can wake him if you want but it's on your head." Matt said, walking back into the room and back to his beloved Tangerine, _'hmm, I'm gonna need an external hard drive soon…'_ he thought absently as he waited for the kid to either go away or face the dragon's wrath.

Billy stared at M's roommate in shock. No one defied Claire, ever.

Well okay, so maybe the nerds and skaters did to some extent but everyone knew that she had to get her way…didn't they?

Hesitantly, he walked into the room, looking for the familiar shock of blond hair.

"He's the lump under the blanket over there" a quiet voice said and Billy whirled around to see a small, albino looking kid pointing across the room to the bed farthest from his where there was a lump in the middle of the bed, completely covered by blankets, "do you have fast reflexes?"

"Uhh no, why? Do I need them?"

The boy just smiled at him, "you'll find out soon enough" was all he said.

Billy was halfway across the room when the voice made him stop again, "by the way, out of curiosity"

Billy paused, half turning, "yes?"

"Where is the closest hospital?"

"Uhh, probably on the outskirts of the City why?"

"You'll find out soon enough" was all the pale boy said.

Billy was now getting a very bad feeling as he neared the bed when the lump suddenly began to shake.

Immediately, the red haired boy who answered the door was in front of him. "M, M come on wake up"

"You might want to come back here where it's safe" the soft voice from the other side of the room called out softly.

Billy looked back to the pale boy in confusion before turning back to the red haired boy and Miles when a hand came up from underneath the covers quickly, aiming for the red haired boy's head. Or rather, where the red haired boy's head had been.

Billy had no idea how those two could move so fast. He stood there, frozen in shock which, he slowly began to realise, probably wasn't the safest thing to be doing.

"Nik can you rid us of the kid?" the red haired boy snapped, trying to avoid the flailing hands and feet of the blond who was still half asleep.

Suddenly, Billy found himself out in the hall with the pale boy, looking surprisingly natural in his white pyjamas leaning against a wall, "I think its best we wait out here for a while. Max knows how best to deal with M in the mornings"

Billy nodded weakly, understanding now the questions about reflexes and hospitals.

"Mells it's me!" Matt hissed once the boy was out of earshot. "Wake up!"

The thrashing paused for a moment, "…Matty?"

Matt breathed a sigh of relief, "yes it's me now can you wake up please? Some kid was looking for you, sent by a Claire or something?"

Mello groaned, "Stupid bitch, why can't I sleep?"

"Go ask her yourself." Matt said bluntly, heading back to his own bed and Tangerine, "get up and get dressed before more of them come please."

Mello groaned again, "I don't want to, why can't you go?"

"Because I don't have any idea who these people are and we're supposed to be sticking to our plan which at the moment is to spread further division throughout the school, thus me, a skater, going up to whoever it is you're hanging out with would be a bad idea" Matt recited, having had this talk with the moody blond countless times before.

"Well _fine_ then," the blond said, heading towards the bathroom, "I guess _I'll_ just have to go put up with stupid bitches that never learn their place"

Matt held back a snort at that, _'you're never gonna get it are you?'_ he thought bemused.

* * *

Matt breathed a sigh of relief. Finally some peace and quiet.

Mello had gone off with the kid and hadn't been seen since and Near had decided to go have breakfast then work on getting into even more of the teachers good books. Not that he wasn't in all the teachers he had met's good books anyway.

Then:

_Bang, bang, bang_.

Matt groaned aloud, "its open" he called; deciding he'd had enough of getting up for annoying people for today at least.

"Dude it's me Brad" the Australian exchange student said, pushing open the door, "Wanna come into the city? You haven't been in before have you?"

Matt was torn. On the one hand, going into the city meant he could find a decent external hard drive that he was in desperate need for. On the other hand, going into the city meant he'd actually have to get up and go into the city.

You can see how hard this is for the poor gamer.

In the end, it was his beloved Tangerine who decided for him. With a beep, Matt was informed that he had no more space on his beloved computer which meant that he could really, do nothing on her until that problem was fixed because he really, _really_ hated slow computers.

"I'm in" Matt said, getting up and stretching, "lemme get dressed"

"Cool dude, I'll meet you out the front okay?"

"Cool" Matt said, grabbing his things for a shower, "I'll be out in half an hour"

"Will do"

* * *

Twenty minutes later found Matt and Brad walking away from the school with a bunch of their friends, headed for the train station.

"Say" Matt began in a lazy drawl, "anyone know where a guy can pick up a good external hard drive?"

Everyone around him just looked at him as if he were speaking a different language.

"I guess not then" he huffed, not really put out, "anyone know any decent computer stores then? Or gaming centres even?"

* * *

Meanwhile, on a city bound train that had just reached its destination, a crowd of young people got off at a stop, failing to realise they had left one of their own, a blond haired, blue eyed guy with a bar of chocolate held loosely in his hand, behind.

Said blond was currently sleeping, his head resting against the window.

* * *

"Hey guys! I'm just gonna go in here for a bit," Matt called to Brad and the other skaters, entering the small computer store.

The red haired gamer frowned a little as he looked around, trying to find something good with lots of space and that would work when he got back to England.

Something within budget preferably but that wasn't entirely necessary as he could just divert some funds from Roger's private account if he needed to.

So intent on the store's wares, he did not notice that his friends hadn't followed him in. nor had they waited outside. In fact, it appeared as if the group had not even heard the small boy from England as they went off in search of Starbucks and a cup of coffee.

* * *

Yawning, Mello woke up as the train slid to a halt. Looking around, he scowled, then smiled. It appeared as though his tour guides had disappeared which meant that he would not have to spend all day waiting outside changing rooms as the girls dragged him from one clothing store to another.

Exiting the train he looked around, trying to figure out where the hell he was.

* * *

"Thanks for waiting guys I—" Matt's words died on his lips as he looked around for his 'friends' "great just great" he mumbled as he started off in a random direction.

'_If I'm gonna be lost in NYC'_ he thought to himself, _'I may as well have an adventure while I'm at it.'_

_~"Hold on, one more time with feeling. Try it again, breathing's just a rhythm"~_ he sang softly to himself as he went down an alleyway that reminded him of Narnia…

**

* * *

A/N:** And that was chapter eleven, Lexaeus hath thus been saved.

Next up will be Luxord.

In the next chapter we have the adventures of Matt and Mello as they are lost in NYC.

Sorry for the wait guys. And I'm sorry that there was no angst in this one like there was going to be. I decided that it was too soon for that and so we're going to have some fillers that aren't really fillers as they contain necessary stuffs.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. If you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

And thus I would like to thank CANDY chan for their love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	12. Chapter Twelve: Lost in New York Part II

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Luxord from Kingdom Hearts.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #44) Finding a human tooth on Delancey street and #38) Aiber (who doesn't really make and appearance but oh well).

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Nightminds by Missy Higgins (who is from Geelong, where I live! (and yes I know that I'm a total fangirl thankyou very much)). And the title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Twelve: Lost in NYC part II

* * *

Mello groaned as he passed the old man begging in front of a Chinese bakery _again_.

He had been wandering around for _hours_ and had yet to see anyone of anything he recognised. _'I blame Matt'_ he thought viciously, _'he's the one who made me get out of bed to come into this godforsaken city.'_

* * *

Matt sneezed suddenly out of the blue.

"Bless you" a passer by said.

"Thanks!" Matt said cheerfully. Matt was in a good mood, a very good mood indeed. After all, he's been lost in this city for _hours_ and keeps running across little internet cafés and gaming centres, why wouldn't he be happy?

'_I wonder how Mello's getting along'_ he thought suddenly.

He quickly found another café and sat down, pulling out his Tangerine and quickly opening a program he'd designed a while back after the last time Mello decided to get lost in a big city.

It was a program designed to track bugs he'd planted on various people, just for fun and also to make sure they wouldn't get caught on their frequent chocolate runs.

Typing in Mello's name, he found that the blond chocoholic wasn't too far from where he was.

Now the only question was …'_what's Mello doing in China town?'_

* * *

Mello growled, low in his throat as he passed the old beggar and the bakery _again_.

He was just about to give up all his pride and ask for some help when he heard a familiar chuckle.

"Mells, why have you been walking in circles for the past three hours?"

Mello turned his head so fast he heard his neck crack. There, sitting in a little café with a coffee and his laptop was none other then the person Mello blamed for all of this.

"Matt" he growled but the red head held up a hand to stop him.

"Here," the gamer gestured to the seat across from him which Mello took suspiciously…which soon faltered as Matt pushed a mug of hot chocolate and a block of Cadbury chocolate to him.

"You…you found Cadbury's?" he asked around a mouthful of the glorious sweet sent down by the Gods to England.

"Yeah, there was a store somewhere, not sure where exactly, that had a heap of stuff from back home so I thought I should get you some before you went off to find and destroy all producers of Hershey's" Matt said, grinning easily.

Mello didn't answer, purely because he was too busy swallowing his chocolate. Matt smiled softly and went back to breaking into the FBI database. He was so close too. A couple more all-nighters and he'd have everything the FBI claimed to know in the palm of his hand…

* * *

"So uhh, where are we exactly?" Mello asked once the block of chocolate and his hot chocolate had disappeared.

"We're in China Town" Matt said, not looking up from his computer, "Give me a sec will ya? Just a bit more and I'll have reached a safe spot"

Mello nodded, not even trying to figure out whether his friend was playing a game or hacking into the MI5. With Matt it was best not to know.

"Done" Matt said after about five minutes, "Lets see if we can lose our way back home huh?" he put some money down onto the table and the two of them left.

* * *

"Matt we've been here before" Mello said, "look, there's that pool of dried blood and random teeth where someone had a fight last week"

"Mells, this is New York, you can't say that we've been here before just because someone had a fight on that corner." Matt replied.

"Matt we're lost, just own up to it already so we can try and find our way back"

"But Mells" Matt whined, turning to look at the blond with huge green eyes filled with tears, "I wanted for us to _lose_ our way back, not _find_ it"

"I don't care" Mello said, meeting his friend's gaze firmly, "and can you stop with the crocodile tears already? People are going to think you're a wimp"

Matt rolled his eyes but shrugged and wiped them dry anyway, "so where are we exactly?" he asked nonchalantly.

Mello groaned and went into a nearby store. He came out ten minutes later with a pleased smirk on his face and a handful of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. "We're on some street called Delancey" he said to Matt.

"Oh, really?" Matt asked, "I know how to get back to school from here…"

"YOU KNEW ALL ALONG?" Mello exploded and Matt grinned.

"Of course Mells, I'm the walking map remember?"

Mello just glared as they made their way to the train station.

* * *

"Never again" Mello yawned as he collapsed onto his bed.

"But Mells, didn't you have fun?" Matt asked, grinning as he got 'wired up' as Mello put it.

"No"

"You got Cadbury's out of it didn't you?"

There was a pause in which Matt sent a triumphant smirk to Near.

"…Shut up and let me sleep" came the eventual reply.

Near ignored the banter between his two roommates, choosing instead to begin on a wall of Tarot cards around his bed.

_~"Just lay it all down"~_ Near looked up at the sound. Matt was tapping away on his Tangerine, singing softly so as not to disturb Mello, oblivious to Near's stares.

_~"Put your face into my neck and let it fall out. I know I know I know. I knew before you got home."~_

Near blinked, trying to ignore the red head and focus on his wall.

_~"This world you're in now, it doesn't have to be alone and I'll get there somehow. 'Cos I know I know I know, when even springtime feels cold. But I will learn to breathe, this ugliness you see, so we can both be there and we can both share the dark."~_

Near glanced up to see Matt staring at the lump that was Mello, hiding under his blankets, and the pale boy felt a sharp pang of…_something_ in his chest.

_~"And in our honesty, together we will rise, out of our nightminds and into the light at the end of the fight."~_

* * *

"YES FINALLY!" Matt cheered, completely forgetting that it was three am in his elation at _finally_ getting into the FBI database.

He absently dodged the pillow sent his way as he entered the name of the person he was looking for into the search bar.

Clicking on a link, he pulled up his file and grinned at the image of the finely made blond man staring up at him.

"Maaaaaatt, what are you doing?" Mello's voice floated out from underneath his blankets, "Its three o'clock in the fucking morning, I want to _sleeeeeeeeeeeeep_"

"Sorry Mells, I was just excited cos I _finally_ got through into the FBI database. Go back to sleep and I'll explain some other time when you're awake."

"Nnngg"

Matt smiled softly as his friend's breathing evened out into sleep. "Now I just send off a quick email to Roger and Watari and Mr Aiber is in the bag"

* * *

Later that day in music class, Matt was all but dead.

"Dude, when's the last time you slept?" Brad asked the exhausted gamer.

"Can't remember" Matt croaked, "Sometime before coming here? I'll be fine" he added at the skaters worried look, "All I need is a good cup of coffee and I'll be fine"

Brad looked at him sceptically, "Oi white boy!"

Near looked over at the pair, raising an eyebrow, "yes?"

"How often does he sleep?"

"I don't know, you'd have to ask M, he's been Max's roommate for longer."

"Yo Blondie!" Brad yelled to the blond.

"What do you want?"

"How often does Max sleep?"

"I dunno, once every month or so usually I think, sometimes more sometimes less"

"…Why isn't he insane?"

"Who says he isn't?"

Brad didn't have a reply for that but he did catch Matt as he collapsed over his guitar.

"Miss! Can I take Max to the nurses office?"

Ms Cav nodded, he face worried, "is he okay?"

"He'll be fine in a few hours, just don't try to wake him" Mello assured from across the room, "he's worse than me when someone wakes him up"

* * *

"Nnng, wha?" Matt said groggily as he tried to sit up in an unfamiliar room, "where am I?"

"Oh good you're awake" a brusque female voice said, "you're in the infirmary"

"Right, what happened?" Matt sat up properly and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, looking around for his goggles.

"You collapsed in class, your friend, Brad, told me you haven't been sleeping recently"

"I don't sleep" muttered Matt, "I just wake up sleepier then I was before so there's no point."

"It's that kind of thinking that landed you here young man. People's bodies need rest so that they can function properly. I hate to think of what you've done to your immune system"

"Look lady, I've been like this since I was eight, I'm not about to change any time soon and I've been fine so far so I don't see what your problem is"

"You have been out for three days, had you not awoken by five this afternoon you would have been transferred to the nearest hospital. As it is, we are advising your headmaster back in England who we understand is also your legal guardian that you see a councillor about your sleeping issues"

Matt snorted at that, the thought of _Roger_ getting a councillor in because Matt was having a little trouble with sleep was really quite laughable. "Yeah good luck with that" he muttered

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, can I go now?"

The nurse pursed her lips but nodded, "I suppose so, but make sure you sleep regularly!"

"Yeah, yeah" Matt said with no intention of changing his sleeping pattern as he walked out the door.

**

* * *

A/N:** And there we have chapter two. Which means Luxord is _saved!_ *dances*

Next up will be Roxas from Kingdom Hearts because I didn't realise he hadn't already been saved.

I'm so cruel to poor Near. *Huggles Near* I'm sorry Near! I really do love you~~

But wasn't it so cute? The sheep is learning how to feel. ~~

In the next chapter we will have our long awaited angsty scene.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. If you request someone who is a) already granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via a PM.)

OKAY! Because I have realised that many people have reviewed and I have not mentioned them, from now on I shall thank everyone who has ever reviewed (if you review more than once you will only be mentioned once though)

So, I would like to thank: CANDY, **The Two Notorious Dipshits**,** xxxDuckiexxx**,** boogified**,** Kit-Kat-AnGeL**,** yvonna **and** polymath78 **for their love (Jenny and Mei chan don't get a mention because they're actually related to me and thus do not count :P)

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Blame Me

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Roxas from Kingdom Hearts (I lol-ed when I realised he was being saved in chapter thirteen).

This chapter is also dedicated to my beloved Angel because it has the angst she's been waiting for for a while (ie, since April)

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #48) Reading only Shakespeare (talking in iambic pentameter) as well as mentions of all the other That Time things. More detail on those will be in later chapters.

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Lay Me Down by The Wreckers and Blame Me! Blame Me! by Anberlin. The title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Thirteen: Blame Me

* * *

After Matt's brief falling asleep in class episode there were no other major dramatics.

Weeks passed and the boys slowly grew used to their groups and not hanging out together outside of their dorm.

Matt, despite his obvious dislike for working, kept his grades just under Mello and Near's, knowing that if he let them slip, even a little bit, he would get it so bad once they got back.

"Dude, why do you work so hard?" Brad asked one day as he watched Matt complete both their homework one lunchtime.

"Principal back home is getting weekly reports of me." the red head explained, "if my grades slip to 95% or under I'm gonna get it sooo bad when I get home."

"That's harsh." Brad said sympathetically, "but you're getting like, 100% in music and computer studies, shouldn't that like, be enough?"

"Nope, over 95% across the board, not even an average but each individual class has to be that high or Mr Rogers will kill me."

Brad's laugh died as he saw how serious Matt looked, "Dude, he wouldn't actually like, kill you would he?"

Matt's lip twisted, "With Rogers, who can tell?" was all he said.

In the cafeteria, Mello was getting involved with his clique to a degree far further then either Matt or Near.

This involvement all had to do with one thing that just so happened to go by the name of Claire.

Matt didn't like it, Mello didn't like it, even Near didn't like it. But there was nothing any of them could do without possibly compromising the plan.

See, Claire ruled the school, literally. Whatever she said became law with the teachers and most of the students, the only students not directly obeying her being the skaters and the nerds. The skaters because they were under the impression that rules and by extension, laws were only there to be broken or compromised. The Nerds because they felt that they were above such things with their superior intellect and all.

Because it was the general consensus that the skaters were hopeless cases who had no worth, the main battle was between the Nerds and the 'It' crowd. These tensions had only heightened with the arrival of the Wammy's boys who, of course, got caught in the middle.

Mello, because he was hot and popular as well as smarter than all of the nerds bar Near. Near because he was the only one to not only match but beat Mello academically and Matt because everyone wanted him on their side, this metaphoric game of tug of war continuing even back in their dorm.

Anyways, back to the point. When Claire decided she wanted something, in this case Mello, whatever she wanted became hers. Immediately.

So when she asked the blond out, he had no choice but to accept unless he wanted to risk compromising the plan, which he would avoid at all costs.

The problem was this: with Mello dating the most popular girl in the school, he became second in command so to speak. What he said became law unless directly opposed by Claire.

So, when Mello decided that he would read nothing but Shakespeare and talk only in Iambic Pentameter, there was no opposition from the teachers at all. And he still got perfect grades.

As you can probably guess, all of this power went straight to Mello's head meaning that he was basically back to how he was before Near had arrived at Wammy's, minus the aura of fear surrounding him … and Matt.

* * *

Near was worried. He looked normal, he acted normal, he played his normal self to a 't' but all the while, his insides were twisting in an extremely unpleasant way.

The source of his worry was one Matt, or Maxwell Jenkins as he went here. Matt was upset, _'about Mello no doubt'_ and this made Near worry.

He didn't know what Mello was playing at, dating that _girl_, logically, Near knew that Mello had his hands tied, but just because he was with that, _thing_, didn't mean he had to spend almost every single waking moment with her!

It was tearing Matt apart, not that he show it or anything. But Near could tell.

It was little things like the way he left a bar of Cadbury chocolate on Mello's desk every afternoon or how he avoided Claire and her pets whenever possible.

It was in how Matt actually did the work and kept his grades up to just below Mello's.

It was in the way he chewed off the ends of his pencils until there were hundreds of stumps littered around their room.

It was in the thousands of little holes in the mortar in the back wall of the bathrooms where he sat at lunch and recess.

It was in the acrid stench of the cigarettes Matt now smoked.

It was in his sudden obsession for hacking into the CIA, MI5, ASIO and other intelligence agencies worldwide.

It was in the way his smiles never reached his eyes anymore.

It was in the way he rarely talked anymore. Never more than one or two words at most and never to anyone other than a teacher or his friend Brad.

It was in the way he no longer sang aloud anymore.

It was in the way he listened to the songs that reminded him most of his mother every waking hour, day and night.

It was in the tears that poured from his eyes late at night when he thought Mello and Near asleep.

And what was worse was that, even though Near saw all of this, even though he _knew_ what was going on, he could do nothing about it.

Absently, Near wondered when he had grown to care so much…

* * *

Music was fast becoming Near's favourite class as it was the only class where Matt seemed even slightly happy. Or at least not as down as he was everywhere else.

The gamer was fiddling around with his guitar before class started.

Near watched the gamer as he smiled softly to Brad, answering a question in a quiet voice.

They still had a few minutes before class was due to start and Near could tell the gamer was taking those few, precious minutes as a relief from Mello's presence for all too soon, they would be gone, and Matt would have to acknowledge that Mello was not Mello anymore but M, Claire's boyfriend who ruled the school along his girlfriend's side.

Matt shook his head silently at Brad, smiling gently, sadly.

Near watched on in interest as the gamer's shoulders slumped in defeat and he began to gently play something just as the door opened.

"Come on." Brad said, nudging Matt with his foot, "just one I promise"

Matt shook his head stubbornly.

Brad sighed, "Come on Maxy, I just want to help. You know that right? I'm not gonna pry or anything, whatever it is your hiding from me well…I guess its for a good reason, but just play something _please_"

Matt sighed in defeat, "What do you want me to play?"

"Play something for that Miles guy" Brad responded, "Play a song you would sing to him if he would actually listen without being such a bitch."

Matt nodded once, already knowing exactly which song he would sing.

The door opened just as he took a breath to begin, ignoring whoever just came in, Matt began to sing softly, his voice laden with pent up emotion.

_~"You let me in, cos after all it seemed like, the right thing to do oh-whoa. I closed my eyes and let you fall, I wondered what you could possibly know, about breaking down that I don't. It's been a while since I begged for anything but now I want more. _

"_So lay me down I'm lonely, oh-whoa, You don't understand me. And you never even tried to anyway._

"_I hear you say, it's not the same, I'm sorry, it's something I just can't explain. So shut your mouth, and hold me close we both know, it's better than being alone. I don't mind killing time as long as I can see it in your eyes._

"_Lay me down I'm lonely, oh-whoa, You don't understand me. And you never even tried._

"_If wanting you's wrong, then I'm wrong I'll admit it. Time after time you realise you don't mean it._

"_Lay me down I'm lonely, oh-whoa, You don't understand me. And you never even tried._

"_I'm sorry, lay me down. I'm lonely, lay me down. You don't understand me and you never even tried to anyway"~_

Matt finished, tears running silently down his face.

He quickly wiped them away, looking around fugitively to see if anyone noticed and froze when he saw who had walked in the door before.

Mello was standing there; jaw slack with that slut of a girlfriend of his hanging off his arm.

Swallowing hard, Matt calmly placed the guitar beside him, stood up and with a nod to Brad, walked out of the room, brushing past Mello briskly as he did.

Mello looked vaguely after Matt but was soon distracted by the _thing_ hanging off his arm.

Near frowned at that. _'Time to remind Mello of who his real friends are. Of why he is with that girl in the first place'_ he thought, trying to ignore the little voice in his head whispering, _"so this isn't just because Matt was crying? Or because he chose that bitch over you?"_

Turning around to face the piano he sat at, he put his fingers to the keys and picked out a few notes, then a chord _~"_ _And we could ride all night, To the place of a blinking light, Wishing traffic was faster, Traffic was faster."~_ He began to sing softly, his voice building as he let all of his hatred and disgust for the Mello still standing in the open doorway take control. It was a …liberating experience for the child. Never before had he felt anything so strong, let alone allowed it to take over. He was always in control, cold and calculating. _~"Keeping safe distance, But courting disaster, We could dance all night, To the sounds of a starting fight, Hoping change would come around, Change would come around ,Amazing division, How sweet the sound._

"_Blame Me! Blame Me! Blame Me! For mistakes you've made, But you can't own, Hate Me! Hate Me! Hate Me! For every honest word, That you postpone, Leave me out of this, Lights on sinking ships, Are gleaming! Gleaming! Gleaming! For mistakes you've made, But you can't own._

"_And we could stare all day, At problems that will go away, Silence is pounding, Silence is pounding, You're wearing me down, These corners, they're rounding, We could scream all night, You know there's love still left inside, Stop saying you're sorry, All of these words feel so very empty, _

"_Blame Me! Blame Me! Blame Me! For mistakes you've made, But you can't own, Hate Me! Hate Me! Hate Me! For every honest word, That you postpone, Leave me out of this, Lights on sinking ships, Are gleaming! Gleaming! Gleaming! For mistakes you've made, But you can't own_

"_Torturing ourselves, We must be into the abuse, If you're the rope that ties us together, Then please make me a new sad speech, Or leave and beg me just to stay, Used to run to my arms, But now I'm pullin' away, Come and go as you please, I'm like a part time lover, With well worn knees, Well come on, _

"_Blame me! Blame me! Blame me! For mistakes you've made, But you can't own, Hate me! Hate me! Hate me! For every honest word, That you postpone, Leave me out of this, Lights on sinking ships, Are gleaming! Gleaming! Gleaming! For mistakes you've made, But you can't own"~_ by the time he finished the song, Near was breathing heavily.

The rest of the class had arrived by now but the small, pale boy ignored them all.

"Hope you're happy" he said to Mello before sweeping gracefully past him, "Oh," he paused just as he was about to leave the classroom, "And don't you _dare_ take any of this out on _him_."

And then he was gone.

**

* * *

A/N:** And that was chapter thirteen, Roxas hath thus been saved.

Next up will be Marluxia from Kingdom Hearts

Can you tell I don't like Claire very much?

Does anyone else hate Claire as much as I do? Is that even possible? Because I hate her a LOT as in, on par with Jessica Hawking and Ace Harrower from Luci (which is serious) actually, I hate her as much as I hate Xavier. Which is even more serious as I blame Xavier for everything.

WHY DO I HATE SO MANY OF MY OCS? *cries* Mama, where did I go wrong?

Anyways, who is impressed with my updating speed?

The reason this chapter was out so fast was because I've had it written for aaaaaaaaaaaaages because I _was_ going to put it in before but decided that it was too soon. The reason I'm not making you wait for it like I probably should to keep the suspense and all is, again, Angel's fault because she told me once that she likes angsty chapters.

In the next chapter we have FLUFFF!

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. If you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

So, I would like to thank: CANDY, **The Two Notorious Dipshits**,** xxxDuckiexxx**,** boogified**,** Kit-Kat-AnGeL**,** yvonna **and** polymath78 **for their love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	14. Chapter Fourteen: Memories and New Plans

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Marluxia from Kingdom Hearts.

This chapter is also a going away present for Angel who is going to Egypt, lucky thing, I hope this reaches you before you leave Angel!

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #7- a black out, #13- a portrait of a beautiful woman, #19- Venice, #29- ghost stories and #50- Trying to save a pigeon with a broken wing.

Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including no songs, yet again (an actual reason for this one though, ask me about it if you want). The title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Fourteen: Memories and New Plans

Near reached the room he shared with Matt and Mello only to find it locked and silent.

Frowning, he fished out his key, wondering if Matt had gone somewhere else. Opening the door he peered inside only to find out that his suspicions had been correct as the room was cold and empty.

His frown deepening, Near closed the door and locked it, trying to think of where Matt might have gone.

Matt slipped through the fence and out into the big bad world, not caring that he was still in his school uniform of grey pants, white shirt and red tartan tie, not caring that Brad at least and maybe Near would be looking for him, not caring that hot tears still spilled from his eyes in an unending stream of pain, and most definitely _not_ caring that Mello didn't either.

To say that Mello was stunned would be an understatement.

First Matt had sung that song, then Near, and what the sheep had _said_ _~"Hope you're happy." he said to Mello before sweeping gracefully past him, "Oh," he paused just as he was about to leave the classroom, "And don't you _dare_ take any of this out on _him_."~_ and then there was the _look_ Matt's skater friend, Chad?, had given him as he too left the room, presumably in search of Matt.

Matt.

Everything _always_ led back to _Matt_.

Claire tugged at his arm, trying to get him to sit down and serenade her on the violin. _Fuck_ the violin, he was trying to think here!

Frowning slightly, he shook her off impatiently, "Gimme a sec" he said, turning away from them all, finding a quiet place in the room, the corner Matt usually sat in

Sitting down, he allowed his body to curl in on itself, something he hadn't allowed since a tiny red haired kid with too big eyes and hands that shook entered his life and turned it upside down.

Closing his eyes, images from the past filled his mind.

There was Matt, his face alight with dreams of the future as he told Mello that one day, he would travel all over the world. He would visit Venice for the Carnival and from there make his way all through Europe mentioning names of places he hadn't even heard of before "Oh!" the small gamer added excitedly, "and I have to go to Bohemia and become a citizen there so that I can officially be called a Bohemian!" the Mello in the memory smiled fondly at his friend, silently wondering if Bohemia was even a real place.

Another memory, this one a few months after the last and only a few before a small pale boy came to ruin everything.

There was Matt, tears filling his wide eyes as he pleaded with Mello, trying to save a pigeon with a broken wing. Mello remembered sighing and ruffling the kid's hair before quickly gathering some stuff so he could carefully splint the bird's wing. The next morning, Matt was again crying, this time because a street-cat had somehow managed to find the bird and pull it to pieces. Mello comforted the boy and posed as the minister for the make-shift funeral they held.

He remembered the first blackout at Wammy's after Near had arrived. The lost little sheep had crawled into their room and begged Matt to let him stay. Matt being Matt agreed and suggested they tell ghost stories seeing as the atmosphere was already perfect.

The red head lit a few candles, scattering them throughout the room and made Near and Mello sit in the space he cleared in the middle of the room, piled with blankets and pillows. He took out the old locket with the portrait of a woman who Mello had always thought of as Matt's mother. She was beautiful, long hair as red as her sons and green eyes that sparkled with mirth over the most genuine smile Mello had ever seen. Carefully, Matt opened the locket and placed it so it was standing on the floor beside him.

"It was a dark and stormy night when my tale takes place." the gamer began in a calm voice that only seemed to add to the overall atmosphere of the room, "Upon a hill there sprawled an ancient mansion, so old that no one was allowed near it in case it collapsed, with them still screaming, trapped inside…"

Matt Matt MattMattMattMattMattMatt

EVERYTHING WAS ALWAYS ABOUT _MATT_

The class ended and still Mello sat, curled up in his corner, remembering.

Matt accepted the coffee he didn't remember ordering and took a sip, frowning as he realised he _hadn't_ ordered coffee.

He felt the tears trying to well again as he savoured the sweet, rich hot chocolate it seemed he had ordered instead, knowing that they would fall. They couldn't, he had nothing left to cry.

He vaguely wondered where he was, not really worried as he could probably find his way back to the school when he felt up to it. _'I wonder when that will be.'_ he thought wryly.

"Maxwell Jenkins," a voice said tiredly, "why are you not in school?"

Matt looked up to see a very familiar face even though he had never met this person before, "Mr Wammy," he said, rising to his feet and gesturing to the seat across from his own, "please sit down, what brings you to New York?" he gestured for the waitress to come over and told her to get his companion a cup of coffee.

"New York?" Watari asked sardonically, "My dear boy, we are in New Jersey."

"Really?" Matt asked, looking around him properly for the first time, "I honestly did not realise."

Watari's coffee arrived and he took a sip, humming in approval, "So, Mr Jenkins, what brings you to New Jersey?"

Matt sighed and stared down into his hot chocolate, "Things … aren't going to plan" he said finally, not looking at the man who's orphanage he had lived in since he was eight.

"Care to elaborate?"

"We figured out that if we wanted to get back to England we'd have to get there ourselves," Matt began softly, "so we came up with a plan of escape from the school. It involved taking it over so to speak by infiltrating the three major cliques of the school, I was to handle the skaters, Nik the nerds and Miles the 'It' crowd. It work a little _too_well and now I'm not sure if Miles even remembers England at all" he finished in a whispered and found out that he _did_ in fact have more tears to shed.

Watari smiled sadly at the teenager before him, "I'm afraid I cannot tell you what to do Maxwell, you must figure that out for yourself. However, I can give you a small piece of advice, and that is; if Miles really doesn't want to come home, maybe its time for you to accept that and modify your plans accordingly.

Matt nodded, biting his lip and reached into his pocket for his wallet.

"Don't worry about it," Watari stopped him, "I shall pay for our drinks and escort you back to your school which I'm sure you'll be able to enter unobtrusively?"

Matt nodded, thanking him quietly.

"Its no matter Maxwell, I had been intending to visit the school today anyway..."

Near could have sworn that he was never so pleased to see anyone as he was when he _finally_ found Brad, Matt's friend.

"Do you have any idea where he might have gone?" Near asked the Australian, his voice betraying the worry he felt.

"I've looked everywhere he'd be in the school, he must've snuck out." Brad said frowning, "C'mon, this way."

Near followed the skater as he made his way cautiously through the school, looking around every now and then to make sure they weren't being followed.

They were making their way behind the bathrooms when Matt suddenly appeared, his eyes red and puffy but otherwise looking no worse for wear.

"Brad, Nik, hey" the gamer said, smiling softly.

"Where have you been man?" Brad asked, stepping forward to pull Matt into a man-hug, "Me 'n' Nik here've torn apart this place looking for you."

Matt smiled sardonically, "In New Jersey apparently" he said, "Brad, can I talk to you later? I've got some things to discuss with Nik"

Brad looked from the gamer to the nerd and back again before nodding, "Sure man, you know how to find me."

"Just don't wander off into Jersey," Matt said, laughing, "there's some scary people 'round there."

"Will do."

Matt closed, locked and barricaded the door of their room behind them. Near raised an eyebrow at his actions but did not comment.

"I ran into Watari in Jersey." Matt said once he was satisfied no one could get in, "I explained things to him and he said that if Mells didn't want to come back to England we should just leave him here."

Near walked over to where Matt was hovering by the door and hugged him softly.

"Near?" Matt asked as the pale boy pulled away.

"You looked like you needed it." came the soft reply. "We need to talk to Mello" he added more seriously.

Matt nodded silently and then went about un-barricading the door, "Can it wait until after dinner?" he asked softly, his back still turned to Near.

"Of course Matt," came the reply, "Whenever you're ready."

"Thanks."

**A/N:** And that was chapter twelve, Marluxia hath thus been saved.

Next up will be Larxene from Kingdom Hearts.

Okay so not so much fluff…ITS COMING I SWEAR! It'll be in the next chapter…hopefully. Its not my fault Matt decided he was going to go to New Jersey rather than just staying in his room like he was supposed to! The next chapter WILL have the confrontation with Mello though, and Matt's conversation with Brad, who will probably become more of a main character in future chapters.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. If you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

So, I would like to thank: CANDY, **The Two Notorious Dipshits**,** Katy Edison~, xxxDuckiexxx**,** boogified**,** Kit-Kat-AnGeL**,** yvonna**, **polymath78 **and** laughing senseless**for their love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	15. Chapter Fifteen: Shattered

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Larxene from Kingdom Hearts.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #36- A Mysterious CD, #51- Matt only smoking Parliaments, #52- Matt only smoking Marlboros and #53- Matt only smoking Camels.

Please enjoy and thank you to Jenny-onii for beta-ing

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter will be including Shattered by Trading Yesterday and Devil's Trill by Vanessa Mae. The title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very, _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Fifteen: Shattered

Despite Near's begging, Matt refused to go to dinner. Instead, he spent the time while the smaller boy was eating to begin sorting through all the files he had on Tangerine and Kiwi (his external hard drive) and organise them properly.

He wasn't very far in at all when Near came back from dinner early with a plate of something or other for Matt.

"Thanks" the gamer said, taking the plate and putting it on his desk where it would sit until morning, cold and forgotten.

Near, rather than going to his own bed or desk, crawled over the covers of Matt's to sit next to him, silently watching as he continued to sort through the seemingly unending stream of files.

Hours passed like that, Near eventually drifting slowly to sleep on Matt's shoulder.

It was just past midnight when Matt finally finished sorting his files. Mello had still not come to bed.

Frowning slightly, _'where _was _Mello?'_ the gamer began to compose an email to Watari detailing the fruits of his research.

Half an hour into this, the door opened a crack and Mello slipped in, obviously making an effort to be quiet.

"I've been waiting for you" Matt said, strangely calm now that the conversation he had spent all afternoon worrying about was finally about to begin.

Mello slid his key into the lock, silently praying for this to be one of the rare occasions when Matt was actually asleep. Trying to be quiet, the blond slid through the partially opened door. Closing it carefully behind him, he locked it with a small click and slowly turned around, glancing up to meet a pair of green eyes, bright despite the poor lighting in the room.

"I've been waiting for you" the owner of the eyes said calmly. And for some reason, Mello felt as though this conversation was not going to end well.

Near blinked groggily, trying not to fall back asleep as he watched the conversation between Matt and Mello. Things were not going well.

They had established that Mello did indeed wish to accompany them back to England, but from there things had gone a little astray.

It all started when Matt asked an innocent enough question, although not one you would have thought he would ask:

"What about Claire?"

"What _about_ her?"

"You're just going to leave her here?"

"Well duh, stupid bitch would only get in the way plus, what's she supposed to do when we get back? Join Wammy's? I don't think so."

"Are you even going to warn her you're leaving?"

"SHE DOESN'T MATTER MATT! SHE NEVER DID! THE ONLY REASON I AGREED TO HANG OUT WITH HER IN THE FIST PLACE WAS SO THAT WE COULD GET BACK HOME!"

Matt looked up at his friend with cold eyes, "I'll see you in the morning" he said as he grabbed his keys and left the room.

Brad couldn't sleep. His stupid roommate was still blasting his emo crap at two in the morning._ 'Screw this'_ he thought, heading out of the door, not bothering to tell his roommate where he was going.

He found the music room with no problem only to pause as he turned down the corridor, the music rooms were locked at night. So where was that music coming from?

Matt entered Ms Cav's music room silently after picking the lock, in a orphanage of geniuses, its not too hard to find anyone with any skill you might need some knowledge of, making his way over to the piano, not bothering to turn on any lights.

He sat down and opened the lid, just running his fingers over the keys, _'God I missed this'_ he thought silently as he began to pick out a simple enough melody.

_~"Yesterday I died, tomorrow's bleeding, fall into your sunlight."~_

Brad crept down the hall, peering through the pane of glass in the door into Ms Cav's room.

_~"The future's open wide, beyond believing, to know why, hope dies."~_

He saw a figure at the piano, but couldn't make out who it was because whoever it was hadn't turned on the lights. There was something familiar about his voice though…

_~"Losing what was found, a world so hollow, suspended in a compromise. The silence of this sound, is soon to follow, somehow, sundown."~_

Brad frowned, edging the door open slowly, inch by slow inch, trying not to make any noise to alert the unknown pianist.

_~"And finding answers, is forgetting all of the questions we call home, passing the graves of the unknown."~_

He needn't have bothered, the pianist was so involved with his music that he didn't hear the door close behind Brad with a sharp click, or the skater stumbling into something as he tried to make his way over to the piano

_~"As reason clouds my eyes, with splendour fading, illusions of the sunlight. And the reflection of a lie, will keep me waiting. Love gone, for so long. This day's ending, is the proof of time killing all the faith I know, knowing that faith is all I hold."~_

The lyrics trailed off to allow the instrumental to penetrate Brad's mind. _'It's so…sad..'_ he thought. Just as the music began to grow and the mystery musician began to sing again.

_~"And I've lost who I am, and I can't understand, why my heart is so broken, rejecting your love"~_

The singer's voice had grown stronger, harsher, revealing the pain beneath his mask.

_~"Without love gone wrong, lifeless words carry on, but I know, all I know is that the end's beginning"~_

The musician's voice was shaking slightly, passion making his notes fall slightly off.

_~"Who I am, from the start, take me home to my heart, let me go and I will run, I will not be silenced"~_

Brad sank into a nearby chair, trembling from the force of the sheer emotion the pianist was able to convey.

_~"All this time, spent in vain, wasted years, wasted gain, all is lost, hope remains, and this war's not over"~_

Brad watched the stranger carefully, trying to figure out why he felt like he should know him…

_~"There's a light, there's a sun, taking all the shattered ones to the place, we belong, and his love will conquer."~_

As Brad watched, a shudder tore through the stranger's frame, _'Matt..?'_

_~"And I've lost who I am, and I can't understand, why my heart is so broken, rejecting your love"~_

A tear slid down Matt's face, followed by the flood that had been held back until now, but his voice did not suffer for it, save for an increase in the shaking.

_~"Without love gone wrong, lifeless words carry on, but I know, all I know is that the end's beginning"~_

Brad closed his eyes, letting the music wash over him as he fought back tears of his own.

_~"Who I am, from the start, take me home to my heart, let me go and I will run, I will not be silenced"~_

The skater had never heard the small red head sing with such passion before, even when he sang Mario Kart Love Song in class all those weeks ago.

_~"All this time, spent in vain, wasted years, wasted gain, all is lost, hope remains, and this war's not over"~_

Brad felt a tear slip from beneath his closed lids, but for some reason, couldn't bring himself to care.

_~"There's a light, there's a sun, taking all the shattered ones to the place, we belong, and his love will conquer all."~_

'_Beautiful'_ he thought as the music slowed and lost its harshness.

_~"Yes his love will conquer all…"~_

'…_But I'm still gonna break that Miles kid's face.'_

_~"Yesterday I died, tomorrow's bleeding, fall into your sunlight."~_ Matt finished the song with a sad smile, his tears slowing slightly.

Gently closing the lid, he turned to leave, starting when he saw his friend in a chair nearby.

"Brad?"

The Aussie jerked, startled, and looked up to meet his friend's green eyes, bright from the tears that still trickled down his cheeks.

"Max, what...?"

The gamer shook his head sadly, "some other time?" he asked quietly, still not quite ready to bare his soul to his friend.

Brad nodded, "whenever you're ready" he promised, "but we _will_ have that talk"

Matt nodded absently, letting his gaze wander around the room, his eyes eventually falling on something glinting in the dim light.

Frowning, he walked over and picked up the object that had caught his attention, a CD without any markings on it to indicate what it was.

Casting a puzzled glance over to Brad, Matt put the CD into the player and pressed play. A violin began playing almost violent in its passion.

Letting the tumultuous music wash over him, Matt walked over to the window and opened it a crack before lighting one of his cancer sticks, one of the Camels he had decided he liked better than the Parliaments and Marlboros which he had smoked endlessly before.

As the music came to an end the red head sighed and crushed his cigarette out on the sill. Smiling tiredly at Brad he headed for the door. "I should probably go make sure Miles and Nik aren't killing each other in my absence" he said.

"Does it make me a bad person to be hoping that Nik's winning?" Brad asked smiling crookedly, trying not to let the smaller boy know how much he hated his blond roommate.

Matt just shook his head before leaving the room and Brad in darkness.

**A/N:** And that was chapter fifteen, Larxene hath thus been saved.

Next up will be Xemnas from Kingdom Hearts.

I'M SORRY! It's been forever I know, I totally wouldn't forgive me if I were you. Except for CANDY, cos it's actually her fault. I was withholding this chapter until she updated her Phantom of the Opera fic "White Lily, Blue Ribbon" which she finally did so now I can post this~~

Who here loves Brad? Because I simply love him to death. I may have to re-use him in something else… Also...is it just me or does Mello appear to be gaining yet another rival...IT'S NOT MY FAULT I SWEAR!

...On another note, I feel as if Near and Brad are a little too similar...I shall have to remedy this next chapter.

In the next chapter we have what happened in the Wammy boy's room after Matt left and, if I can manage it, The School Camp.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved, but remember, I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. If you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

So, I would like to thank: CANDY, **The Two Notorious Dipshits**,** Katy Edison~, xxxDuckiexxx**,** boogified**,** Kit-Kat-AnGeL**,** yvonna**, **polymath78, laughing senseless **and **Rose-TheDaughterofHades **for their love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	16. Chapter Sixteen: Poor Mello

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Xemnas from Kingdom Hearts.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have nothing, because it was all angsty with no room for anything else.

I HAST A NEW BETA UNTIL CANDY STARTS READING MAH STUFF AGAIN! Everyone go shower PopcornObsessed-DragonLuver with lots of love for offering to beta for me. She is my beloved Onni and I luff her muchly even if she ditched me to go to Korea for 10 whole months. She has also kindly gone back and beta'd chapters 15 (cos it was unbeta'd) and 7 (because she noticed a few mistakes)

Please enjoy and thanks to Jenny-onni for beta-ing

This chapter is dedicated to everyone who waited so long for the last one and to my Onni (Korean Onni not Japanese Onii, it's the form of address from a girl to her elder sister) who needs to come home already. (**Beta Note:** Don't make me feel bad about trying to learn Korean, Su … you were planning to go overseas after graduating yourself weren't you?)

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter does not include any because of all the angst. The title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness".

Rated for language and very, _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Sixteen: Poor Mello

There was a moment of stillness in the dorm room after Matt left, as each of the remaining two occupants took a moment to process what had just happened.

"Well that was well played," Near said quietly as he began to wrap himself in Matt's blankets, to make up for the loss of heat that had radiated from the missing gamer.

"Shut up Sheep," Mello snarled, stomping over to his own corner to get ready for bed.

"No really, I mean it. There was honestly no better way you could have handled that conversation. At all."

"I said, shut up!"

"I'm really, very impressed with you Mello, your growth in understanding and compassion has grown remarkably since I first met-" Near's comment was cut off with a fist to his cheek. "Because that's really mature," Near muttered as he tried to sit up, his hand rising to feel his cheek.

"SHUT UP YOU FREAK! JUST SHUT UP!" Mello yelled, continuing to punch the smaller boy.

* * *

Mello didn't know what had come over him. Well okay, that's a blatant lie, he knew exactly what was going on and how it had devolved into this. He had been with Claire, as usual. That stupid bitch was always hanging off him and insisting they spend every waking hour together and it's not like he could refuse her either. Freaking slut had the whole school wrapped around her little finger and even if he did somehow manage to lose her, he'd lose all the power that came with her, something that he couldn't afford if he was ever going to make it out of this stupid school.

So there he was, sticking to his side of the plan, and then out of nowhere Matt sings that fucking song. Why was he singing a girl's song in the first place? Yeah he knew it, he'd only been Matt's best friend and roommate for years. There was no way in hell he didn't know that the red head listened to the Wreckers when he was feeling really down. And then there was that sheep. "Blame Me". Really? What was he a primary schooler? Fucking brat. And then what was with that conversation just now? Of _course_ he wanted to go back to England. Who would want to stay in fucking America? Bad enough that he was here _now_. And what was that about Claire? She's a fucking bitch. She didn't even like him and he hated her. The only reason she decided they had to go out was because she was scared he'd create his own following and she'd be de-throned. Would have served her right, whore.

But then Matt goes off in a tantrum and Mello couldn't understand _why_. And while he was trying to figure out his friend, that _fucking little princess_ had to go and taunt him like that and … well, you really can't blame the guy.

So now here he is, bashing Near into Matt's bed. There's blood, lots of it. Mello thinks he may have broken the kids nose. Or jaw. Or arm or leg. Maybe a rib or two...But right now he really didn't care. All he cared about was that just when everything was finally going _right_ everyone had to fuck it all up.

Mello vaguely registered the door opening but he paid it no heed. All that mattered was the pain, and the hurt, and the relief followed by guilt. The endless circle of emotions tearing through him.

He didn't hear Matt scream for help, but he did notice hands trying to pull him off the small, pale boy. Before he could register anything, his fist had swung and caught the red haired gamer squarely on the cheek. Time stilled as blue eyes met green.

Everything was a blur after that. There was lots of shouting and dragging to and fro. Mello vaguely remembered sirens at one stage. But all he could think of was the look on his best friend's face after he punched him.

* * *

Claire was confused. This actually happened a lot less than most would assume just by looking at her and the girl did nothing to dissuade these opinions. That's why she had to keep Miles close, he was too sharp to be let out on a free rein. But now she was confused, and she didn't like being confused _one bit_.

She understood that there had been some sort of incident in her boyfriend's dorm after he had finally managed to pull himself away from her the night before. An incident resulting in that weird pale boy going to hospital and Mile's other roommate . . . Jeffrey was it? No...it started with M. ...Matt? no...too common. What's his name, had ended up with a badly bruised jaw.

Rumour had it that Miles was the cause of both boys injuries, coming out of the scuffle without even a scratch. To be honest, Claire wasn't really surprised, the blond had told her he'd studied a range of martial arts back in England so it was only logical that he would come out on top. The school appeared to be taking it in stride, well...as in stride as it could take something as severe as this, they expected no less from her boyfriend. The thought made the blonde girl smile a little, a cruel glint in her eyes that vanished almost before it had appeared.

All of that made perfect sense to Claire. Of course there would be talk but she could smooth that over in a few days, not long enough for any permanent damage to anyone's reputation, but long enough to remind Miles who held the power here.

What _didn't_ make sense was how Miles was behaving. He cared nothing for those who had come with him from England, he had told them all this on his very first day, so why was he behaving as if someone had just killed his puppy?

Claire's eyes narrowed in thought, maybe there was something the blond English boy was concealing from his new friends. From _her_. This could not continue, the queen of Copiosus Prugabumentum High decided she would have to have a _little chat_ with one Miles Nelson.

* * *

Quillish Wammy sighed as he sat in the cold, white hospital room, waiting for one of his charges to awaken from the anaesthetic he had been placed under.

He was getting far too old for this.

When he had spoken to Matt the day before, he had thought the situation was not nearly as bad as this. It appeared he had been severely mistaken. Something that may have cost young Near his life, had Matt returned to his dormitory much later.

It was a sobering thought. That an exercise designed to force the three to get along better had resulted in such severe injuries.

Near had sustained two cracked and several severely bruised ribs, a split lip and a broken nose and a dislocated jaw along with a fractured clavicle and was coloured black and blue from all the bruising. Mello had really pulled out all the stops and Watari took a moment to wonder what it was that had caused him to lose his temper so thoroughly.

His train of thought was soon disrupted by a low groan from the bed as Near awoke slowly.

"Dominik," Watari said gently as the boy tried to get his bearings, "you are in the Queens' Private Hospital. Do you remember what happened?"

Near looked confused for a moment before slowly trying to nod, only to wince before his head had even moved. "Yes," he managed to croak.

Watari held a cup of water to the child's lips for him to take a sip.

Near murmered his thanks before continuing, "Mello he...he was so _mad,_" Watari was about to tell the boy that his attacker would be dealt with appropriately, but froze at Near's next words, "but it wasn't his fault..."

**

* * *

A/N:** DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNN! Cliffhanger. :D I bet you all hate me now but I had soooo much fun with this chapter. Especially Mello and Claire's parts. Does this make me a bad person?

Anyways, that was Chapter Sixteen, Xemnas hath thus been saved.

Next up will be Saix from Kingdom Hearts.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZETTE! Yeah, this chapter is my birthday present to myself. Because I can. (**Beta Note:** Australian Eastern Standard Time, this chapter was uploaded at approximately midnight, January 26. Meaning it was in fact her birthday, while in other parts of the world it will likely still be the day before. Just so you know.)

On another note, I have almost reached 50 reviews, this is a massive number and I'm really excited. So, to the person who leaves the fiftieth review I shall write you a oneshot. So, people leaving anonymous reviews, please leave an email. If the fiftieth reviewer is anonymous and they do NOT leave an email, the oneshot shall go to the fifty-first reveiwer. I'll email or PM the winner for details and such.

In the next chapter we have Mello's punishment. I'm feeling slightly guilty about poor Mells, its really not his fault. But all of you plus just about everyone in the fic itself seem to be out to get him now...

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. If you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

So, I would like to thank: CANDY, **xXNoxxXx**,** Katy Edison~, xxxDuckiexxx**,** boogified**,** Kit-Kat-AnGeL**,** yvonna****, weisseschatten****, laughing senseless,** **Rose-TheDaughterofHades, ACP6jokerlover97, ShinigamiMailJeevas **and my beloved Onni for their love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


	17. Chapter Seventeen: Korean Boy Bands

**A/N:** This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Saix from Kingdom Hearts.

As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.

Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #22 Leon Trotsky, and #23 a guillotine.

Please enjoy and thank you to Jenny for betaing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Doushite Kimi Wo Suki Ni Natte Shimattan Darou by Tohoshinki (Japanese), and I Hate You by 2pm (Korean). The title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.

Rated for language and very _very_ slight angst.

Chapter Seventeen: Korean Boy Bands

Matt sighed as he sank backwards onto his bed that still held a lingering trace of blood from all those weeks ago.

'I really, really hate this place' he thought to himself as he changed the song on Yokobue, "Doushite kimi wo suki ni natte shimattan darou?" he mouthed before grimacing as the translation wormed its way into his exhausted mind. _'__"__Why__did__I__fall__in__love__with__you?__" __What__a__good__question.__Any__answers?__No?__I__thought__as__much'_

At least Mello and Near wouldn't be in the same dorm anymore. Mello had been swapped with Brad, which also meant that for the first time in almost ten years, Matt would not be sharing a room with the blond.

The gamer didn't know what to think of this so he didn't, changing the song again, _Hanbun__duh__neh__mameul__arajwuh~_ _'I__Hate__You__huh?__Funny__how__all__the__songs__I__listen__to__wind__up__mirroring__my__feelings__for_Him' _~Niga__mibda__joogeul__mankeum__niga__mibda__shilta__michidolok__nehga__shilta__nul...Irun__nehga__nan__nan__shilda~_"I hate you so much I could die, I hate you, I hate myself so much I could go crazy, I hate myself, I hate myself for being like this." he translated aloud.

"For being like what?" a quiet voice cut through Matt music and he looked up to see Near standing in the doorway with his arm still in a sling, Watari behind him with a hand placed on the boys back, supporting him.

"Nik!" Matt said, getting up to help the smaller boy get to his bed, "You're finally out, how do you feel?"

"I'm still a bit sore but I suppose that's to be expected," Near said with a small smile, "Mr Wammy told me that Miles got swapped with Brad."

"Yeah," Matt let his fingers run through his hair, "still haven't got used to it yet to be honest."

Both boys spoke cautiously; knowing that Brad or someone else could walk in at any moment. Their once safe haven of the dorm being a place where they could just be Matt, Mello and Near was gone. Now they were just Max, Nik and M.

"I'll leave you two boys to it then," Watari said, glancing at his watch, "take care of him Mr Jenkins."

"I'll do my best sir."

Watari nodded and then left, leaving Matt and Near to look at each other awkwardly.

"...So" Near said, wanting to break the oppressive silence that surrounded the two, "Anything happen while I was out of commission?"

"Not really, Miles has been restricted to classes and his dorm, he even has to eat there, classes have been boring as hell with the usual exceptions of music and History, we've moved on from Trotsky and the Russian revolution and started on the French, you missed out on making guillotines, we had a competition to see who could make the best one. Mine won, but only because Miles decided to keep his "blade" as a chunk of wood that crushed the dolls head rather than one that cut it off."

"Lovely, it's so nice to know that my absence has allowed him to revert back to his kind and caring ways" Near said, smiling up at Matt, only to have his face fall as he saw the expression on the gamer's face.

"I started listening to K-pop" Matt said, abruptly changing the subject from the missing blond, "I like Dong Bang Shin Ki the best, sucks that they've split, FT Island are good too, Hongki-ssi's voice is amazing"

"The Gods rising from the east?" Near translated with a hesitant smile, which strengthened as he watched one appear on Matt's face.

"Yeah, they really are, there are five of them, Jung Yunho, Kim Jaejoong, Park Yoochun, Kim Junsu and Shim Changmin*" Matt said, his face lighting up as he talked about his new found distraction from reality, "Yunho-ssi's the leader but Jaejoong's the eldest, they're all guys by the way, and they've been around since 2003 but in 2009 Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu filed a lawsuit against their company, SM Entertainment..."

LINEBREAK

Mello was bored. Not that that was anything new these days.

His roommate's stereo had mysteriously broken after five minutes of blasting his horrible music on Mello's first night in the room and Mello's own iPod, phone and laptop had been confiscated as he didn't deserve them after his "inexcusable behaviour" so he was left lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

When someone knocked on the door he ignored it. If it was anyone important they would knock again but chances were that whoever was at the door was just looking for his roommate, who wouldn't knock.

That's why when the door creaked open he looked over in mild surprise, the blond was so drained that he could not even dredge up the energy required to be pissed off unless he was outside his dorm, let alone anything else.

"Nik's back" the red haired mirage said as it sat on the very edge of Mello's bed, "two cracked and several severely bruised ribs, a split lip, a broken nose and a dislocated jaw along with a fractured clavicle and he's black and blue from all the bruising but back and walking at least."

"What are you doing here Matt?" Mello croaked, speaking for the first time in weeks, figuring that since the gamer couldn't possibly have just willingly walked into his room then he was merely hallucinating and therefore no one else would know whom he was talking to. Not that he really cared any more.

The hallucination turned to glare at him, it was the first time he had even looked at the blond boy and Mello saw now that it had huge bags beneath his eyes, even worse than usual. Absently, he wondered if the real Matt looked as bad as this one did right now.

"It's _Max,_ Miles," the red head said, "don't fuck this up now just cos you're stuck in here after slipping up."

""Slipping up"?" Mello snorted, "is that what you're calling it? God, even in my imagination you're a fucking pansy."

The mirage rolled its eyes before standing up, dropping something on the bed as he did so, "Whatever _Miles_, camp is in a couple of weeks and Mr Wammy convinced the principle to let you go so stop laying about whining and get your act together, we're shipping out on the last night, don't bail out on me and for God's sake _don__'__t_ let anyone catch you with those," here the mirage gestured to the items he'd left on the bed, "I'll text you tonight with more details, your roommate should be asleep by 3am right?"

Without waiting for an answer, the hallucination left, leaving Mello to look at what he'd left behind. It was an iPod and a mobile phone. _Mello__'__s_ iPod and phone. And they were real.

Mello stared at the door for a second before looking back at the objects in his hands and grinning.

_Thanks__Max_ he texted the other boy quickly, still unwilling to admit he had been wrong about his friend.

The reply was instantaneous: _Put__them__away__before__someone__catches__you__with__them__and__you__get__into__even__more__trouble__for__breaking__into__Hamilton__'__s__office.__I__'__m__not__gonna__be__the__one__taking__the__blame__this__time._

Mello hurriedly shoved his beloved electronics between his mattress and his bed frame, confident that no one would suspect anything was there, and lay back on his bed, waiting for 3am to come so that he could talk to Matt. _Really_ talk to him.

LINEBREAK

Near watched Matt as he did something on his laptop with cautious eyes. The gamer had changed in his absence. He looked more tired and snapped far easier as demonstrated when Near tried to get him to come down to dinner.

The pale boy thought over the red head's words from earlier, when he thought no one else was there _"__I__hate__you__so__much__I__could__die,__I__hate__you,__I__hate__myself__so__much__I__could__go__crazy,__I__hate__myself,__I__hate__myself__for__being__like__this.__"_

Near knew what the boy was talking about but stubbornly shoved that part of him to the box in his mind where the memory of the kiss shared between roommates at Christmas was trapped. He wasn't going to think about this.

He knew it was stupid and that if he examined the data objectively then he would find nothing wrong. But he couldn't just stand back and keep a wall of sharp indifference. Not in this case. This was different. This was special.

This was Matt.

TBC

*These people do exist and they are amazing, they're names are in the traditional Korean/Asian way, that is; Surname Given-name, so Jung Yunho's first name is Yunho. The first song in this chapter is by them but under their Japanese name. They go by TVXQ internationally, Dong Bang Shin Ki in Korea and Tohoshinki in Japan. Look them up on youtube, I really love them and they've done lots of different styles so there should be _something_ you'll like. I personally prefer them when all five of them are there but the new songs aren't _bad_.

And by the time this is posted I shall have officially seen the two left (Changmin and Yunho) live! (Concert is tonight but as I don't have internet here (at my Aunt's house) this isn't going to be posted until I get home.)

**A/N:** And that was chapter seventeen, Saix hath thus been saved.

Next up will be Xaldin from Kingdom Hearts.

My most sincere apologies for the lateness of this chapter (where the hell did ten months go...?) I blame school and my bizarrely not having a copy of chapter sixteen saved on my computer (It cued a total freak out session until I talked to Jenny about it and she told me I'd already posted it). But I really do hope the next chapter will take no where near as long. No promises though as this is me we're talking about.

And yes, I skipped the conversations between both Near and Watari and Mello and Claire because they are unimportant and you know what's going on in them both anyways (if you don't then let me know and I shall attempt to fill you in without giving away plot devices and such)

PEOPLE I NEED HELP! AFTER XALDIN I HAVE ONLY TWO PEOPLE LEFT TO SAVE AND ONE OF THEM I'M KEEPING FOR THE EPILOGUE SO I NEED YOU TO TELL ME WHO TO SAVE!

In the next chapter we have Mello's conversation with Matt (I promise I will actually write that one) and _hopefully_ the beginning of the camp arc.

Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. If you request someone who a) has already been granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)

So, I would like to thank: **CANDY,** **The****Two****Notorious****Dipshits**,**Katy****Edison~,****xxxDuckiexxx**,**boogified**,**Kit-Kat-AnGeL**,**yvonna**, **polymath78,****laughing****senseless**and **Rose-TheDaughterofHades**and **Jenny**for their love.

Thanks for reading!

Suzette


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